


A Source of Power

by stargatefan_archivist



Category: Stargate SG-1
Genre: Action/Adventure, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2008-09-06
Updated: 2008-09-06
Packaged: 2018-12-17 17:03:53
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 7
Words: 36,899
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11855925
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/stargatefan_archivist/pseuds/stargatefan_archivist
Summary: The team investigates an ancient Pyramid





	1. A Source of Power - Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Note from Yuma, the archivist: this work was originally archived at [Stargatefan.com](http://fanlore.org/wiki/Stargatefan.com). To preserve the archive, we began manually importing its works to the AO3 as an Open Doors-approved project in 2017. I e-mailed all creators about the move and posted announcements, but may not have reached everyone. If you are (or know) this creator, please contact me using the e-mail address on [StargateFan Archive Collection profile](http://archiveofourown.org/collections/StargateFan_Archive_Collection).

Sam Carter emerged from the dense canopy of brush, waving off a buzzing insect, and wiping the sweat from her forehead with her sleeve. The back of her shirt was sticking to her skin in an unpleasant way, but there was nothing she could do about that. "Hi Teal'c. How's it going Daniel?" Sam nodded to the archeologist who was crouched next to a huge stone door covered with ancient writing, and the Jaffa who stood guard over his work. 

Daniel turned toward Sam and gave her a rare open smile. "Really good, Sam! I was just telling Teal'c that there does seem to be a connection between this pyramid and the ruins on P3C-589 where we found that cache of artifacts.” Daniel removed his glasses and wiped the sweat from his eyes that had escaped from his sodden bandana. “Where's Jack?" 

"It's 1400 hours. The Colonel went back to the gate to check in with General Hammond. Will we be getting in this afternoon?" Sam hoped the answer was yes; it had to be cooler inside the pyramid. 

"I think so, but I’m not sure…” He pointed to a section near the base of the stone. “There's a cipher in this line, but I still trying to figure it out." Daniel turned back to the row of glyphs and focused his attention, long fingers arched over the shapes and a frown of concentration. Sam and Teal’c might as well have disappeared. 

Sam found herself smiling as she watched him. Daniel had been back for a few months now, but it still seemed like a miracle. Ascension seemed like death to those who had been left behind. 

Teal'c leaned toward her. His contentment was obvious, even in the terrible heat. "Major Carter, it gives me immense pleasure to see Daniel Jackson enjoying his work." 

"I know what you mean, Teal'c. I never thought I'd see this...” A burst of static came from the radio on her shoulder. 

"Hey kids! Are we going to be here while? Inquiring minds want to know." The Colonel's voice was muffled; the signal was poor. "And what's up with the radios, Carter? More of your solar flares?"

Carter leaned into her radio. "My flares, Sir?"

"Yeah, Carter. It's always solar flares... interference this, time travel that...”

"None as far as I know, sir. I’m not sure what’s causing this. There are some unusual readings coming from the pyramid, but they're not particularly strong. The planet does have a more intense magnetic field than we usually encounter, and magnetic fields can break down radio waves." 

Daniel grabbed his radio. "Hey Jack, I discovered a cipher in the hieroglyphs. I think I'm just about there."

"Okay, campers! I’ll pass that on and be back in a minute.” The radio gave one for last burst of static and was silent.

Daniel smiled wryly and turned back to the stone. “The gate’s so close; it doesn’t matter if the radios work. We could just yell.” He went over the glyphs again, looking for inconsistencies. There were six glyphs whose meaning wasn’t standard in their context, so he paid special attention to confirming the determinative glyphs near them. The frown lifted, replaced by satisfaction.

"Okaaay. I think I've got it." Daniel stood and scanned the glyphs above for those corresponding to the instructions in the cipher. He pressed six of them in rapid succession then moved away from the entrance.

There was a deep rumble, a shaking in the earth as the heavy stone slowly began to rise. Moldy, wet soil and rotting pieces of jungle plants fell away from the stone as it rose. A narrow corridor was revealed stretching into the darkness

Jack O'Neill appeared behind them. "Way to go, Daniel!" Jack pulled off his hat and ran a hand through sweaty hair then jammed his cap on again. “Let’s have a look-see.” 

Sam was scanning the opening. “Sir, the energy signature is much stronger now. There is also an increase in the overall amount of electro-magnetic radiation. We’re going to have a problem with radio transmission.” 

“Is it dangerous, Carter? Should we be breaking out the tinfoil hats?” 

Daniel looked from Jack to Sam, listening intently for her answer.

“No, sir. This type of electro-magnetic radiation is non-ionizing and shouldn’t present any problem. I’ll keep an eye on things, but this shouldn’t have any effect on us, unless the levels rise dramatically.” She smiled reassuringly at Daniel, who nodded sharply and returned to his examination of the open door. 

“This isn’t just leakage from the pyramid, though.” Sam moved away from the door and frowned at the readings displayed on her scanner. “Levels have gone up in the entire area.” She turned back to the Colonel. “It’s not a weapon, sir. It isn’t that type of energy.” 

Jack thumbed a button on his radio causing an impenetrable burst of static. Out of commission; it looked like his communication with the SGC would be his last one until they returned. That gave him an unpleasant thought. “Carter, if this energy is breaking down our radio waves, won’t it stop the GDO’s from working, too?”

“Yes, sir. I’m afraid it will. As long as the energy readings are this high, we won’t be able to return directly to the SGC.” 

Jack didn’t like the idea of going into the pyramid without working radios, but the Pentagon was getting antsy about expense versus results again. “Okay, we’ll turn out the lights when we leave. It’s always good to conserve energy. If we can’t turn it off, we’ll head to the Alpha site. What do you think it is, Carter?”

“It may be a new kind of power source, or a major installation of some kind. Whatever it is, I think they may have found an efficient way to use magnetic fields to generate large amounts of power.” 

Jack raised his eyebrows and said “Now that sounds promising. Let’s go have a look.”

“I have read that pyramids are able to focus magnetic fields causing fruit to remain fresh and razor blades to stay sharp forever.” Teal’c eyed the pyramid.

Daniel shook his head and smiled. “Tabloids, Teal’c?”

“Indeed.” 

They pulled out their flashlights and entered the pyramid. They all stopped for a moment, involuntarily, as they savored the dry, cool air of the interior. 

Sam took a deep breath and let it out slowly. “Wow. What a relief!”

Daniel’s flashlight played across the surface of the walls. “The Goa’uld usually inhabit fairly temperate planets. I wonder if this one was chosen specifically because the climate is so inhospitable… It would reduce the chances of discovery.” He continued down the narrow passage. “Here’s something,” Daniel said quietly. 

Jack moved toward Daniel, recognizing the sound of a not very happy archeologist. “What kind of something?”

“Something that could be bad...” Daniel said slowly. He held the flashlight up so the others could see what he had found. The figure he had arrived at was holding what was clearly a symbiote. A bound captive knelt before him. Two helmed Jaffa were pictured behind the prisoner. “The Jaffa are wearing helmets resembling the hunting hounds of ancient Egypt.” Daniel paused and turned to the team. “Greyhounds.” He pointed to the figure holding the symbiote. “This is Am-Heh.”

“You could have just said ‘dogs’. So, what made Amy extra bad?” Jack raised his flashlight to Daniel’s, further illuminating the mural.

“Am-Heh was a god of the underworld, known as the Devourer of Millions.” He pointed to more bound figures of sacrificial victims shown lying on the ground. “He was sometimes confused with Ammit who, in the weighing of the soul after death, devoured those made heavy by sin, and -” 

“Daniel. Moving along.” Jack’s eyebrows climbed and he rolled his hand forward.

“Okay, then. I’ll sum it up. Am-Heh was a different god of the underworld who was feared, not worshipped. He had a great hunger for human flesh; a desire for sacrifice. It was said that he could only be controlled by Ra.”

“Who is dead, so if Amy’s still around…”

“We might be looking at something pretty ugly.” Daniel’s mouth tightened.

“Teal’c? What do you know about this guy? He sounds a bit like Sokar. Will he have the same kind of resources?” Jack asked. Teal’c often had information about obscure Goa’uld that the rest of them didn’t and it was a darned good thing sometimes.

“I know only that he was a minor Goa’uld, but could have been more, had he desired it.” Teal’c answered. “He was greatly feared, but never had the large armies of Sokar. Am-Heh was said to care for nothing but sacrifices and was uninterested in wielding power other than to achieve the deaths he desired. Both Tauri and Jaffa suffered at his hands. I have heard nothing of him since I was a child, O’Neill. Even then, it was in stories related by old warriors. Perhaps he has not survived.” 

There was a hopeful note in Teal’c’s voice that really made Jack hope the same. He turned to Sam who was looking at the mural with interest. “Carter, what about those energy readings? Anything new?”

“No, sir. Except for the spike when we opened the door, they’ve remained stable.”

Daniel moved away from the mural and shone his light on the floor of the corridor. “Jack, that entrance hadn’t been used for a long time and there are no footprints but our own. If Am-Heh is alive, I don’t think he’s here.”

Jack led them up the dark passage, the flashlight beams just reaching the T-intersection at the end. “I’m going to hold you to that, Daniel.” He wagged a finger. “No delicious MRE dessert if you’re wrong.” 

Daniel looked over his glasses at Jack, eyebrows raised. “While I’m not especially looking forward to that vanilla wafer with my meatloaf, I hope I’m right too.” 

They reached the intersection. Then new corridor was much wider, close to 12 feet across. Daniel examined the walls again. “There is a glyph with a cylindrical marking on the passage to each side. I don’t recognize it, but it would seem to indicate that both directions lead to the same type of facility.”

Jack gave his second in command an inquiring look. “Carter?”

She scanned for fluctuations in the energy signature in both directions. “No difference, sir.”

Jack scanned the passage in both directions, the light barely penetrating the gloom. “Okay, I chose left. If there’s no high tech doodad, you can have my pound cake, Daniel.”

Teal’c raised an eyebrow and began down the left branch of the corridor, his staff weapon at the ready. “If you are both wrong in your assumptions, I shall collect both desserts, for you will have forfeited these small wagers.” he said with a sternness that belied his expression.

Sam gave a snort and asked “Why do you get them, Teal’c?” 

There was a hint of a smile on his face. “Because you were surprisingly slow to claim them, Major Carter.” 

As they moved into the corridor, Teal’c’s thoughts returned to the explorations of the previous year, when Jonas Quinn had been on the team, and when they had thought Daniel Jackson dead. Jonas Quinn was a good man, an honorable man, who helped them achieve great victories. But this was the team that he had left Chulak to join, a team with Daniel Jackson, who had returned to them, and who made foolish bets with O’Neill. Somehow victory felt closer.

This corridor was as dark and dusty as the last. The murals of the entry walls had given way to smooth bare stone. There were no intersecting passages as it led them deeper into the pyramid and further from the exit. Eventually they came to another great stone door, a twin to the entrance stone through which they had gained access. It, too, was covered with ancient glyphs.

Jack grimaced. “Great. Just…great! Couldn’t just one of these ever have a doorknob? Daniel?” He gestured toward the door and stepped back to make way for the archeologist.

Daniel ran his hands over the glyphs looking for irregularities or unseen mechanisms. This took quite a while, and Jack was shifting impatiently by the time he spoke. “This seems to be a cipher in the same form as the one on the entrance stone. I can’t find any structural anomalies other than the movable glyphs. There is one slight…problem.” He frowned and turned toward them. “The entrance stone had one relatively clear solution. This one has two equally likely choices. It may have been the equivalent of a password.” He lifted his glasses and rubbed the bridge of his nose before replacing them.

Sam’s face mirrored his concern. “So you’re saying there’s a fifty percent chance that this will be a trap.”

“Yes. Unless the two choices that I dismissed as red herrings weren’t, in which case, it’s a seventy five percent chance.” His frown deepened “But I’m pretty confident that they were. Red herrings, that is. So I’m going with fifty percent. I think the choices are determined by the position of the sun, though. There’s a reference to Ra. Anyway, I have a good idea… I, uh, think you guys better move back some. Quite a bit, actually.”

Jack slipped his pack from his shoulders. “Daniel, I’m not letting you take a 50-50 shot at survival. That is absolutely not going to happen! It’s time for C-4.” 

“We can’t just blow this up, Jack! We don’t know what’s behind it!” Daniel crossed his arms. “If there are artifacts that are as easily damaged as -” 

“Daniel, No!”

Sam broke in to what would clearly become a heated debate. “Sir, the ceilings here are quite high and the walls appear to be thick enough to tolerate the blast, but I can’t say with any certainty that an explosion won’t cause a collapse in this passage.”

“Well, we’ll find out. Daniel is not going to play archeology roulette.” He took out six blocks of C-4 and placed it next to the stone door in two piles. He looked at the door for a moment then reached into his pack for another two blocks.

Daniel threw a hand in the air in frustration and stalked away from the door. Jack’s willingness to blow things up without regard for the consequences infuriated him. He thought of delicate artifacts and technology like those they had discovered on P3C-589. He thought of them tumbling from shelves and shattering, flung from their places with concussive force and destroyed.

Teal’c laid a hand on his shoulder and regarded him gravely. “Daniel Jackson. I, too, do not wish you to take this risk. You have just returned to us. I am unwilling to see you jeopardize your life in this manner. No object is worth your loss.”

Sam watched hopefully. She couldn’t bear to see Daniel to take such a gamble. She had believed him dead, mourned him, and missed him every day. Sam knew the Colonel O’Neill and Teal’c had too, even if the Colonel had never been willing to talk about it. 

Daniel looked Teal’c and saw the depth of his worry. He dropped his eyes to his feet and shifted uncomfortably. The tension in his stance ebbed away. Finally, Daniel looked back at the door and sighed. He shoved his hands in his pockets and frowned at the ground, avoiding the sight of the C-4 being readied. 

Jack looked up at his team from where he crouched. “Move back fifty feet; I want us well out of the action.” He was attaching the detonator when Carter interrupted him.

“Sir? The detonator won’t work. The -”

“Doh!” Jack smacked his forehead with the palm of his hand. “Magnetic whatsit. Right. I guess I’ll have to do this the old fashioned way. That’s so much less fun!” Jack put the detonator back in his pack, took out a fifty foot detonation cord, and attached it to the C-4. He passed his pack to Teal’c and ran the cord down the passage. 

They hunkered down against a wall, backs to the demolition as Jack lit the detonator cord; the explosion was almost instantaneous. Tremors shook the stone around them as dust and pulverized rock filled the air.

As the dust settled, much of it on the team, Sam straightened. “Enough C-4, Sir?” She pushed herself to her feet.

“There’s never enough C-4, Carter.”

Jack shouldered his pack and they headed back up the passage to inspect the damage. The stone door was now an opening. Where they might have expected the remains of the door to have landed, there was only a large rectangular hole in the floor. The trap had been opened along with the door. A chasm now stretched 20 feet long, extending from the doorframe. On each side, it ended in a smooth edge, 7 inches from the walls.

Jack picked up a piece of debris from the floor and dropped it over the side. There was no sound of it hitting the bottom of the shaft. His look to Daniel was full of meaning. “You were right about that trap.”

Teal’c and Sam were also watching Daniel. Teal’c’s expression was troubled as he thought of the risk that had very nearly been taken. Sam was trying to replace the vision in her mind’s eye of Daniel tumbling endlessly into the shaft. They shared a look that was both relieved and dismayed.

Daniel felt a little queasy. He wasn’t thinking about what might have happened, he was thinking about what was going to happen. There was no place to attach ropes, so that wasn’t an option. Crossing twenty feet on that seven inch projection was the only way into the room and the drop was…infinite. Not imaginary-infinite like the one on Cimmeria. Real, rock-falling-forever infinite. Smooth walls on both sides; no help there. To make matters worse, the doorframe was narrower than the shaft, so it was going to be a tricky getting around it into the room. 

The room… He lifted his flashlight away from the shaft and shone it through the newly created opening. At the furthest reaches of the beam of light, he could see the looming form of some kind of equipment, but he couldn’t tell what it was. Curiosity warred with anxiety.

Jack waved for their attention. “All right kids, we need to talk about this. It’s time for a plan. Carter, can we shut off the power or whatever from here?”

“No sir, not in any way that I know of.”

“What about the readings? Any chance that the GDO’s and radios will work?”

Sam glanced at the scanner. “Sorry, sir, no change.” 

“Then we head to the Alpha site. This is just too risky.”

“Sir, we could really use a power source of this magnitude.”

Jack knew the Pentagon would agree with her.

“Jack, if there is a connection between this place and the ruins on P3C-589, there might be artifacts and technology that we can’t pass up.” Curiosity was winning the battle. Daniel was willing to cross this chasm for what he thought might be on the other side.

Jack shook his head. He didn’t like it, but Carter and Daniel were right. There was too much potential here to ignore. If they went back now, Hammond would be left to explain it to people who wouldn’t think ‘it was dangerous’ was a good reason to turn back. In their eyes, ‘dangerous’ was why SG-1 got paid. “There’s nowhere to attach ropes and we don’t have a grappling hook. Ideas?” He looked at each of the members of his team.

Teal’c just raised an eyebrow and glanced at a ledge. 

Sam shook her head again. “No, sir. There’s nothing to tie off on here, not even a wall sconce, and nothing over the ledges to clip onto. We could rope ourselves together, but without being tied off in some way, that might not be a good idea. The floor is too smooth to provide enough traction to prevent everyone from going over the edge if…”

“If one of us falls.” Daniel shifted uncomfortably. “Well, if I fall, I’d rather not take the rest of you with me.”

“Nobody’s going to fall. That’s an order!” Jack looked at the gap and gauged the weight of his pack. “Teal’c, if we lightened these packs down to the bare essentials, do you think that you can throw them across that pit?”

Teal’c inclined his head. “I believe that it will be possible, O’Neill.”

“Okay, leave the sleeping bags, extra clothes, and anything else that you don’t think you’ll absolutely need. Then we’ll assess the weight and see if we need to leave anything else.”

They removed everything from their packs that made things more comfortable, but was not truly necessary. Daniel’s pile also included a number of reference books, which he held for several moments before placing them on the pile by which he knelt.

Jack noticed the archeologist’s internal struggle. “We’ll come back for our stuff, Daniel. You’re not leaving them forever.” He raised an eyebrow. “Now, was that all the books?”

Daniel sighed and straightened the abandoned and valued books. “Yes, Jack. That’s all the books.”

“Okay, then.” Jack gave Teal’c a questioning look. 

Teal’c lifted Daniel’s pack experimentally. “The weight is acceptable.” Teal’c kept the pack in hand and approached the pit. He swung it back and then forward, allowing both momentum and his strength to carry it across the chasm. He repeated this with the other three packs.

Jack motioned Daniel to the right ledge, while he moved to the left. “Daniel and I will go across first. Sam and Teal’c give us some light; we’ll do the same for you from the other side.” Jack didn’t want Daniel to have too much time to think about this. That would make it worse for him. “Back to the wall and eyes up, Daniel.” Jack instructed. “Slow and steady. Ready?”

Daniel nodded silently and approached the chasm. On Jack’s nod, he stepped sideways onto the narrow projection, keeping his back up against the wall. His flashlight was in his left hand, his right was free to grab the doorframe and swing himself around it when he got there. He knew Jack had given him the right side on purpose, so he could use his stronger hand. It would be more difficult for Jack. He’d have to use his left, or turn on the ledge. 

Daniel’s feet extended almost halfway over the edge, giving him the unnerving feeling that his position was already insecure. He tried to turn his toes sideways, to face forward toward the doorframe, but that pushed his right hip away from the wall, throwing him off balance. Okay, that wasn’t good. He briefly considered turning his toes to either side like a ballerina, but rejected the idea. Daniel was pretty sure he didn’t bend that way. He would just have to ignore the fact that half of his feet were hanging out over a chasm. He took a deep breath and stepped sideways again, and saw Jack making his way across the ledge on the other side.

Jack watched Daniel’s progress while doing the same. Inch by inch, they crossed open chasm. Daniel was a little on the pale side but was plugging away. He never lacked for guts; self preservation, yes, guts, no. They were almost halfway across when Jack’s foot slipped on a rock cast there by the explosion. And he started to fall.

“Jack!” Daniel watched with horror as his teammate struggle to regain his footing on the narrow space. Jack flailed and dropped his flashlight, but regained his balance. Daniel watched the flashlight bounce on the edge before slipping into the shaft and falling indefinitely. He found himself riveted by its drop. 

Jack took a deep breath, willing his heart to slow down. He glanced over at Sam and Teal’c. They looked almost as shaken as he felt, and had moved closer to the edge in an instinctive, futile urge to help. Another deep breath… That had been too close. No more thinking about that. Then he looked at Daniel. Jack didn’t like what he was seeing there. From what he had heard, Daniel had done fine in a similar situation to rescue Gairwyn – well, he’d fallen, actually, but that hadn’t been his fault. There was no one to rescue here. It looked like he was thinking about this more than was good for him. “Daniel… Daniel, look at me. Keep your eyes up, okay?”

Daniel was nodding at him, but still looking after the flashlight.

“Daniel! Focus, here!”

Daniel wrenched his gaze away from the path of the flashlight. “Yes… Yes, good idea...” He met Jack’s eyes and forced a smile. “What do you say we get off these ledges?” 

“You bet, Daniel.” 

Daniel nodded and they both continued inching sideways for what seemed like an eternity, finally reaching the opening that had been a door. He grabbed the frame and swung himself into the room, launching himself forward with a desperate urge to get away from the pit. His momentum kept him moving and he narrowly avoided landing in an ungainly sprawl on the floor.

Jack followed seconds later, just slightly more gracefully. They moved back toward the edge where the door had been.

Sam was waving her flashlight. “Sir…” She tossed it across the 20 foot gap to Jack, replacing the lost one. 

Teal’c threw his staff weapon to Daniel. It hurtled across the chasm like a spear and Daniel caught it out of the air. 

A wry smile crossed Jack’s face. Daniel had come a long way since SG-1’s first years. He was always athletic and capable, but he’d lacked confidence in his ability. No one doubted his ability now, not even Daniel.

Daniel passed the weapon to Jack, and then stood ready to give Sam a hand getting around the protruding frame. Her shorter reach would make getting into the room more challenging. The extra risk weighed on him as the sight of that flashlight tumbling replayed itself in his mind.

They trained their lights on the ledges as Teal’c and Sam began to cross. 

Sam watched Teal’c crossing on the other side; it kept her from looking down. He had an uncanny grace, as always. He was in complete control of his body and gave no sign that the lethal drop bothered him in any way. She knew it might. When they had been forced to parachute into a remote location in Siberia, Teal’c had been appalled by the notion. He had ‘not believed it wise’. Eventually, the colonel had resorted to pushing him out of the plane. And yet, Daniel had jumped, even with his fear of heights. Sam thought it might have been the parachute that bothered Teal’c, more than the height.

Sam was not so sanguine, in appearance or reality, but her smaller size served her well in this instance. Luckily, she didn’t share Daniel’s aversion to heights, so her mind wasn’t working against her. Crossing the ledge was still very unnerving, even with her military training. Sam steadied her thoughts and kept moving, one sideways motion after another. She focused on Teal’c’s grace rather than the drop at her feet. She was only partially successful.

There were no close calls for either of them. As Sam neared the outcropping, Daniel motioned his intent to help her around it. When she nodded, he grabbed her wrist and pulled as she leapt for the room. 

Teal’c reached the doorframe and swung himself inside with light, compact movements. He made Jack and Daniel’s efforts look incredibly clumsy. He took his staff weapon from Jack and handed his flashlight to Sam, before grasping the weapon with both hands, ready for use. “Let us proceed.”

Daniel felt a deep sense of relief that they were all together on the far side of the chasm. He took a breath and let it out slowly. “I really, really hope there’s a better way out of here.” He turned his flashlight on the nearest equipment. The light didn’t reach more than twenty feet, illuminating a bank of monitors of some kind. There were innumerable, large pieces of equipment extending deep into the room, and beyond the range of sight. The room seemed impossibly large. 

Sam smiled ruefully. “Oh, you’re not the only one, Daniel. Believe me. Now what do we have here?” 

Daniel looked somewhat bemused as he took in the rows of equipment looming before them. “Something different. And, you know, that’s not always a good thing.”


	2. A Source of Power - Chapter 2

Jack waved a hand at the equipment looming in the dark. “Carter, you and Daniel try to figure out what this stuff does and how to turn it off. Teal’c and I will look around a bit.” Jack motioned to Teal’c and they began walking down the exterior wall, their lights glowing dimly in the darkness of the cavernous room. Their footsteps were soon muted by the vastness of the hall.

“You know, I would have expected some kind of lighting in here.” Sam moved to the monitors and ran her flashlight over the indicators. “I’m not seeing anything here or at the entrance that might activate anything. Most of the technical facilities that we’ve found have had automatically activated lights or a least an obvious means of illumination.”

“I’m wondering if this is really an installation or a power source at all.” said Daniel. “That trap was a bit extreme for an area that would have had workers coming and going.”

Sam checked her energy readings against the output from the monitors. “You’re right. It’s not a power source. It’s using a lot of energy, not producing it. If the power to maintain this place really is electro-magnetic, it may have some of the same problems with power loss into the environment that precludes practical usage on Earth. It would have to be much more advanced than anything we have achieved, just to produce this kind of power, but it would explain the readings I’ve been getting.” 

Jack and Teal’c had returned to the entrance point and rejoined Sam and Daniel in time to hear her comment.

“So, not a fancy new power source. Not here, anyway. So what is it, Carter? This place is fairly strange, even for the Goa’uld.” Jack was shining his light over one of the unmarked containers. “We stopped counting at fifty rows of these. Whatever they are, there’s a lot of them. Teal’c, ever seen anything like this?”

“I have not, O’Neill. This is unlike any facility possessed by Apophis or other Goa’uld that I have encountered.” 

Sam approached the first container, reporting her findings to the team as they lit the area for her. “This is a cylindrical tank that appears to be made of a naquadah alloy and is attached to the monitors. They form a kind of power grid. There is an indicator on the base, which appears to be power consumption and a small sliding panel on the tank. I’m going to open it now.” Sam grasped the raised edge of the closure and slid it across. It covered a thick piece of transparent material. She rubbed the condensation off with her sleeve. “Oh, God! It’s a person. A body.” 

There was a young woman in the tube, her eyes closed… clearly lifeless. Sam involuntarily stepped backward. She had seen too many bodies for that to be a shock in itself, but here, preserved in this way, it was appallingly unexpected. 

Bodies… The tanks held bodies. “Sam? Are you sure that it’s not some kind of stasis?” Daniel didn’t think that Sam would say ‘body’ if she wasn’t sure, but he had to ask. If she was right, the magnitude of what they had found was terrible. A chill ran through him as he thought of the overwhelming number of tanks and their probable contents.

“I really don’t think so, Daniel. There is nothing here to monitor life signs. I don’t even see a way to get them out. This is nothing like other stasis devices that we have seen, Asgard, Ancient or Goa’uld. And she looked…”

Jack grimaced and broke in. “Dead. So this place is the most energy inefficient graveyard in the galaxy?” He hitched his P-90 into better position. There was nothing to shoot at, but this place was giving him the heebie jeebies. “Why? What’s the point?”

“Sir, it doesn’t make any sense. I can’t think of any reason to do this. If you calculate the energy requirements of this room, together with the one that is probably at the end of the other passage, it’s astronomical!” Sam was stunned. It was so macabre, so pointless, that her mind reeled. “Teal’c? Any ideas?”

“I have no thoughts on this place, Major Carter. I can think of no reason for its existence.” Teal’s tone was one of repugnance, a raised eyebrow expressing his disgust. 

Daniel slowly turned, light playing across the cylinders that stretched away from them. “Devourer of Millions…”

The implications struck them hard as they stood in silence.

Daniel continued after a moment, gesturing broadly at the dark expanse. “Am-Heh took sacrifices. If it’s true that he could only be controlled by Ra and sacrifices were his primary motivation, not power or wealth, then he wasn’t like the other Goa’uld. Not… sane in the way that they would measure sanity. Maybe… Could this have been a collection, of sorts? Like a serial killer keeping trophies, his very own underworld. 

Sam felt a shiver pass through her. “That is truly grim, Daniel. Really.”

Daniel felt pretty grim. He’d spent a lot of time in tombs and catacombs, but this was different. He wondered if there were other mortuaries of Am-Heh’s victims. He wondered how they had died.

Jack had had enough of this talk and this place. “We’re done here. Nothing we can do for these people.” He adjusted his cap and set his shoulders, shaking off the funereal mood that had enveloped them. “It’s time to look for another way out. Otherwise, we go back the way we came and look for another way to disable that power source.”

“Sir, if we disable the power, these tanks…the bodies will -”

“Yeah. I know, Carter. I don’t like it either.” Jack’s mouth tightened and he rubbed the back of his neck. “Once we get the GDO’s operational, we’ll go back to the SGC and make arrangements for someone to come in and take a look at this…graveyard. Maybe the SGC can give these people a decent burial, but there’s nothing we can do right now. Science teams can come in later, too. But we need those GDO’s and radios working.” 

There was no argument from the science part of the team. Jack was thankful for that. Death had been an unspoken presence for most of the team too long. They didn’t need to be literally surrounded by it. He didn’t think Daniel should do too much pondering on the concept, either. 

“Move along the exterior wall to the right.” Jack ordered. “Look for a way out. Check a tank every 10 rows so we can get an idea if they are all…occupied. We stick together. No wandering off, no falling behind. Let’s go.” Jack gave a wave to move them out and they proceeded around the outside of the monstrous vault.

The tanks were all full and they found no exits of any kind. It took over an hour to inspect the exterior wall. They clung to it instinctively, maintaining a distance between themselves and the tanks that held the dead, except to check the contents periodically. They found nothing but more of the cylinders. 

“Sorry, folks. We tried, but its back across the big scary pit. Unless anyone has a better idea?” Jack shot a look at Daniel, who looked unhappy, but shook his head. “Back it is, then.”

They approached the open shaft and readied themselves to return using the same method that had brought them. Jack and Daniel had only taken one step out onto the ledge when a massive wave of fire came blasting up out of the shaft. Intense heat and flame washed over them. Smoke stung their eyes and filled their lungs. They launched themselves back toward the vault of the dead, landing on the floor and rolling. The flames died as quickly as they had risen.

Daniel flopped onto his back, coughing, and blinked his watering eyes. He thought he’d just lie down for a minute and think about things. 

When Jack had managed to stop coughing, he picked himself up and examined a singed sleeve. “Damn! That was unexpected. Although I suppose I should have seen it coming. This is just such a special place!” 

Sam approached the edge cautiously. “I don’t see any motion sensors or weight triggers. I wonder how…” She examined the far wall of the pit, which was the only part she could see without leaning dangerously close. “There are small blackened areas on the stone that weren’t visible before. I think there are mechanisms to release fire, at regular intervals along the walls.” She reached around the edge of the doorway and waved a hand over the ledge. The flames and smoke boiled up from the pit, illuminating the entrance with fiery light. Sam snatched her hand back, coughing. “So we can come in this way, but not leave. I don’t know how our movement is being registered. There might be something further down the shaft, but I won’t be able to get down there to disable it.” 

“Not to worry, Carter. There’s always plan B.” Jack looked around at his team. “So… what’s plan B?” The flames died again, sending the room into darkness once more.

Daniel stood up and gazed toward the shaft, frowning.

Sam thought for a minute, and then shook her head. “Nothing very practical, Sir. There may be a hidden exit on the walls somewhere, but that could take days to find, if there even is one. We should save that as a last resort.” 

Daniel turned his gaze from the entrance to the center of the room. 

Jack knew he wasn’t seeing anything because, apart from the tiny lights at the base of the cylinders, the room was totally dark away from their flashlights. It was also at least five football fields across. CFL not NFL. Then Jack saw Daniel’s eyebrows rise up over his glasses. He knew that look. That look, either from Carter or Daniel, had saved their butts on many occasions and Jack liked it. Except when he didn’t. Except when it was followed by Daniel deciding that an unacceptable risk was both acceptable and necessary. He hoped this would just be the first part.

Daniel looked at him and said “Jack, there is one other thing…. I know the Goa’uld usually place rings next to a wall, so they can mount the controls there, but they wouldn’t necessarily have to do it that way. The entrance to the room is equidistant to the two sides. If we go straight to the center of the room from here, we might find something. It would be relatively common architectural practice to put the most important equipment in a place that had equal access from all points.”

That didn’t sound too dangerous. “Okay, I’m willing to take a stroll before we start tapping walls. It’s not like we have to fight our way through Jaffa to get there.”

“I wish you hadn’t said that, Jack.” Daniel said, with a raised eyebrow. 

“Y’know, I kind of wish I hadn’t, either. I wasn’t thinking. Teal’c, watch our six.” 

Jack led them toward the center of what they now realized was a vast tomb. They moved forward in silence past the countless tanks that held the dead. The sound of their footsteps echoed into the blackness and their flashlights cast all too little light. It was far too easy to imagine nightmarish things.

As they drew near what Sam guessed was the middle of the space, there was a break in the rows of cylinders. Inside a small area, surrounded tightly by the tanks, they found a set of rings recessed into a low platform. “Rings. A way out.” Sam said relief evident in her tone.

Daniel had approached a small stele next to the platform and was examining the writing on it. A deep frown crossed his face followed by puzzlement. “Or not…” he replied. 

“What do you mean? And where are the controls?” Sam looked around. “No! Daniel, we’re already inside. What’s the point?”

“I’m not sure yet, Sam. This isn’t the usual ring transport. And these look a lot like the ciphers on the first two doors.”

Sam began taking readings at the stele and the platform.

Jack watched the science contingent of his team with growing frustration. “Damn it, Daniel! What are you about to tell me that I don’t want to hear?” He glared at the pillar.

Daniel waved him off without looking and continued to read the stele. “This isn’t instant, you know, Jack! Even having deciphered the first two… Teal’c, can you take a look at this? What does this mean?” He pointed to a section of writing.

Teal’c joined Daniel and examined the stele gravely. “It refers to ring controls accessing more than one destination, Daniel Jackson.”

Sam looked at them in surprise. “Really? I didn’t think that was possible.”

“Generally, it is not, Major Carter. It is most unusual. Multiple destination ring transport is not safe under normal conditions. The rings will only be usable from this platform and not from their destinations to prevent undesirable accidents.” Teal’c looked at the stele again and pointed to the next line of glyphs. “This section speaks of journeys to the other world. The world to which it refers is not clear to me.”

Daniel looked at him sharply and bent to examine the symbols.

Sam had been looking for controls that they might use to bypass the ciphers, but stopped. “So it’s one way only.”

Daniel went over the symbols again with the additional information from Teal’c, speaking as he read. “Okay… The controls for the rings seem to be attached to combinations entered on the stele. The descriptions here are very… unclear as to where these combinations actually take you -” Daniel stopped, abstracted. He touched a section, then the one above it, as though contact would bring clarity. He frowned and turned to Jack. 

“What’s the really bad part, Daniel? Because I just know there’s a really bad part.” Jack said.

“Well, this is different from the entrance to the pyramid and the door that you, uh…, opened. The first one had a straight yes/no answer. You do it right, you get in. The second one was much more complex. It had fatal consequences for failure, and there were multiple possible answers, only one of which would have a positive result. That is, if I was correct that -”

“Daniel!”

“Okay, cutting to the chase, now - this one seems to have two equally likely solutions and I have no way of knowing which, if either will help us get out of here. Or why there are two choices at all. I do think that they would both take us somewhere. There’s no puzzle here. But I don’t think either is any place we’ll like. ”

“Daniel Jackson, what is the reason for this? We have already gained access to the secrets of this place. Why are more obstacles now being placed in our path? It is most unlike a Goa’uld to hinder his ability to leave his own domain in such a manner.” Like Jack, Teal’c found his frustration growing. There appeared to be no reason for these traps and delays. There was no great wealth to be stolen, nothing to be guarded but the dead. 

“I don’t know, Teal’c. I really don’t.” Daniel’s own disappointment and worry showed in his voice. “It makes no sense to me either!” Daniel raised his arms and gestured around the vast space. “Maybe there is something of great value here to be protected and we just haven’t found it. Maybe we’re missing something that would make some sense of this. I don’t… I just don’t know!” He sighed and dropped his arms. “And before we go anywhere, I should probably mention the Lake of Fire.”

“And there’s the part I was waiting for! Daniel, you didn’t think you should mention the whole ‘Lake of Fire’ thing before now?” Jack scrubbed a hand over his face. 

Daniel looked embarrassed. “Well, I thought was allegorical and it didn’t really seem to be an issue. But some of these glyphs refer to Duat which pretty much implies fire of some sort. We might go below ground level. Where one might expect to find a Lake of Fire, if there was one around. I don’t know if it’s real or if it’s here, but I thought I’d just… bring up the possibility. Am-Heh was supposed to live in a Lake of Fire, so if we find that particular lake -” 

Jack grimaced and shook his head. “We might find Amy. If he’s alive. If he’s on this planet. Great! That’s just peachy!”

Sam spoke quietly, “Sir, I just thought of another possibility. What if this whole place is a trap? Daniel said that Am-Heh was obsessed with human sacrifice. Maybe this is all a setup to kill any interlopers that come across it. Maybe they never intended to return, so they didn’t need a way out.”

Jack stared at her. “Nice, Carter. Way to be positive. You just keep thinking those cheery thoughts.” Jack sat on the edge of the platform. “Alright, much as I hate being here, it’s time to take a meal break. I’m getting cranky. Daniel, you can tell us about our choices, and then we’ll make a decision.” 

The rest of the team sat near him, taking rations from their packs. They busied themselves heating the MRE’s with flameless ration heaters and trying not to dwell on their location. No one wanted food right now, especially here, surrounded by the countless sacrifices to Am-Heh. Their years of experience had taught them that hunger and thirst could cause as many mistakes as fear or exhaustion, so they forced themselves to take the opportunity to eat. There might not be a chance later.

Jack took the plastic wrapped pound cake from his cheese tortellini menu and flipped it to Daniel.

“Too early, Jack.” Daniel said with a shake of his head. “This might belong to Teal’c.” He tossed it to Sam along with his vanilla wafer. “You hold the pot, Sam.”

Sam nodded wordlessly and put them in her pack. She knew they were trying to lighten the mood, but it was falling utterly flat. She didn’t have the spirit for gallows humor. They all knew that none of their options were going to be good and this horrible parody of a resting place dug at her nerves.

Teal’c ignored this exchange and applied himself to his turkey with gravy. He did slip the chocolate energy bar from the meal into his pocket. He routinely saved those for Daniel Jackson, who was fond of them. Right now, he was feeling the archeologist’s presence keenly, giving the gesture additional meaning. 

Daniel Jackson’s death, his ascension, had been without reason. It had been for a people who did not appreciate his sacrifice, and blamed him for their own failures. They were without honor. This place was also without reason. Countless deaths that had no honor, or meaning. He wished to depart. Nothing positive could happen in this place. Teal’c would be very glad when his teammates finished this ritual of decision and O’Neill allowed them to leave.

Jack finished his tortellini with effort and turned his attention to the instant coffee. “So, Daniel, where are we at? And I’m asking for all the details, for once.”

Daniel pushed aside the remains of his meatloaf and tossed Sam his cocoa beverage packet. In a long standing arrangement, she tossed back the instant coffee from her beef stew menu, giving Daniel an extra. One weak instant coffee packet just wasn’t enough for him. Of course, two was disgusting, but that was better than weak. It was all about caffeine at this point.

“Well, the glyphs on the stele give a choice of two places, depending on which glyphs are pressed.” Daniel said. “One choice is Duat, the dark realm of the dead – also called Tuat, the other world. It is described as a realm of darkness, filled with lakes of fire and great tribulations.” He stirred his coffee with a plastic spoon then took a sip, grimacing at the taste. 

“Oh good, tribulations, fire… Just the thing.” Jack glared at his coffee.

Daniel lifted a finger. “The thing about the underworld is there is always a way out… for those of pure spirit. But we don’t know how Am-Heh might define that. And there’s no guarantee that we’d be, uh, corporeal, either.”

“I like corporeal, Daniel. I like this “corpus” just fine, thanks you very much.”

Daniel raised an eyebrow at that. Jack didn’t delve into Latin much. Not when he didn’t have an Ancient repository in his head. “Oh, you’ll like the second choice, too, Jack. That’s to join Ra as he journeys through the underworld on his night barque. I’m not quite sure how that would work, since Ra is dead, but that is where Ra was said to battle Apep, the personification of darkness, evil, and chaos.” 

Teal’c had opted for a beverage called orange flavored crystals, although it tasted nothing like the fruit called oranges. His hand froze as he brought it to his mouth. “Apophis.” he said in a grim tone.

Sam thought for a second. “Well, there’s no way that Am-Heh convinced Ra and Apophis to spend time under his pyramid. And they’re both dead. So what do you think this really means, Daniel?”

Teal’c gave Sam a nod of approval and drank his orange flavored crystals.

Daniel shifted uncomfortably and stretched out his legs. “I think you were right, Sam. If there is a good way out of here, this isn’t it. Unfortunately, any other way seems to be very well hidden, if it exists at all. I think we have two bad choices. My guess is that one is most likely fire of some kind, Duat being a land of dark and fire. The other probably has something to do with snakes what with the Apophis reference and all. Of course, there could be dark and fire there, too. It’s still the underworld.”

“So its walk through fire in the dark or ride through snakes? Snakes in fire and dark - whatever!” Jack raised his eyebrows and tilted his head. “Nice choices.” He thought about their options. “I’m thinking snakes. That way implied transport of some kind, might be faster. Daniel? Sam? Teal’c? What’s your take?”

“It’s a toss up, Jack. When both ways are bad, faster is as good a choice as any.”

“I’m fine with that, Sir.”

“I will gladly abide by your decision, O’Neill. I wish to leave this place.”

“Gladly might be pushing it a bit, Teal’c, but okay. Let’s pack up this mess and head out.” Jack pushed himself to his feet, packed everything away and gave his weapons a once over. He could have ordered them to follow his choice but, to be honest, if this went south, he’d feel better that they’d had a say.

Once the remains of the meal had been packed away and weapons checked, they climbed onto the ring platform. Daniel went to the stele and turned to the team. “Ready?” After receiving nods all round, he pushed a series of glyphs and ran into place on the platform, Berretta in hand. The rings rose up from the platform with and pulled them into the depths below the pyramid.

As the rings retreated, Sam scanned their location, P-90 at the ready. Daniel had been right about the dark. It was slightly lighter than the vault ‘upstairs’, but not by much. It was hotter as well. Not hot like it was outside the pyramid, but not the cool of the interior. The three of them that still had flashlights cast the beams over the area. 

Sam heard the sound of water lapping against the stone platform on which they stood. The light revealed the dark shapes surrounding them as jagged rocks rising high on three sides. The only exit was toward the water. As she stepped toward the lapping sound, her light showed the edge of a waterway, a boat tied to a post set into the platform. The water smelled rank and had an oily sheen. 

Daniel quickly moved to examine the boat and looked as excited as he’d made a wonderful find on a dig. 

Sam wondered at his ability to enjoy anything in this place. She gave herself a shake and a private pep talk. This mood wasn’t going to help. Time to snap out of it. Hundreds upon thousands of wasted lives or not, she had a job to do. Daniel’s enthusiasms had a way of keeping them alive, and when she wasn’t in such a rotten mood, she usually found them fascinating. She shifted her grip on the P-90.

Daniel studied the boat with interest. It had a very high gold prow, green paint on the body and oar lock on the sides. The oars had been removed and were resting on rowing benches in the center of the craft. “A papyriform boat! It’s a perfect miniature of Khufu’s funeral barge! That was a hundred and fifty feet once it was assembled. This is only about twenty and… Ahh, that’s how Am-Heh got around the Ra issue!” There was a small raised platform, plated with gold, on which rested an ornate statue of Ra as the falcon headed god with rubies for eyes, and a sundisk on his head.

Jack shone his flashlight across the water. He couldn’t see that other side. “Is it safe?”

“Well, the Royal Egyptian Navy used papyriform boats to -”

“Aht!” Jack raised a finger and enunciated carefully. “I meant, is it a trap?” 

Daniel blinked. “Oh. Well…” His eyebrows raised and he looked at the boat considering. “I don’t think so. It’s not taking on any water and we are clearly supposed to use it to get somewhere.” Daniel waved a hand toward the boat. “There doesn’t seem to be any other way off this platform and it would be kind of pointless to bring us here just to have the boat sink.”

“There’s a whole lot of pointless going around right now, Daniel” Jack said dryly. “But you’re right. There’s no other way out of here unless we swim, and I left my suit at home. Dang, again with the not thinking! Okay, off we go, time for a lovely boat ride.”


	3. A Source of Power - Chapter 3

“Daniel, what can we expect to happen in this little journey with Ra-Barbie?” Jack waved a thumb at the stature on the raised platform of the boat. 

“I’m not sure, Jack. This is all very odd. The Goa’uld know none of the legends were true. Sometimes they took on the characteristics of existing gods. Sometimes they created rituals for their glorification. Some legends were developed after Ra left the Earth to explain events.” Daniel scowled out over the water. 

“Am-Heh has to know that there was no underworld, no journey of Ra to bring the new day. So why does he have us acting it out?” Daniel paused and thought for a moment. “There are references in ancient Egyptian texts to snakes with eyes of fire, which has obvious implications. We know that Apophis was an enemy of Ra. We know that many of the gods from our mythologies were actually Goa’uld, but there’s not much of a connection between the Egyptian myths of the afterlife and the practices of the Goa’uld. The only clear connection is the concept of rising from the dead when placed in a sarcophagus and the need for judgment, or godhood, before being found worthy of such immortality. This just doesn’t make sense. There is no way to predict what Am-Heh intends or why.” 

He gave Teal’c a questioning look as he stood by the mooring rope, waiting to cast off. “Nothing about this place is as expected. I have never seen such methods.” 

“I’m thinking that Amy’s just wacko. So, we should get ready for bad and crazy. Let’s secure these flashlights to the boat. We need hands free.” Jack unzipped a pocket on the side of his pack and pulled out a roll of tape.

“Sir? You bring duct tape?” Sam tried to hide a smile.

“Of course, Carter. It fixes anything. The space station would have fallen apart years ago if it wasn’t for duct tape! It’s the greatest achievement of western civilization.” He grinned at Sam and Daniel, daring them to comment.

Sam just rolled her eyes. Daniel’s eyebrows looked like they might leave his forehead altogether. “I’m not going to rise to the bait that easily.” 

“Since when?” Jack was still smiling as he pulled off a strip and threw the roll to Sam. He attached the flashlight to the front of the platform, illuminating the front of the boat with pale light.

Sam did the same at one side of the platform, then took Daniel’s flashlight and repeated the task on the other side. Now the interior of the small boat was lit, as well as a few feet in front and to the sides of the craft. The light wasn’t very strong and the beams were fairly narrow, but they would need the extra light. The tactical tights on the side rail of the P-90’s only lit what you were aiming at.

Daniel noticed a small bundle in the prow, lit by the forward light. He knelt down and opened it, revealing a pile of long knives in leather sheaths. “They stabbed at him with sharp knives…”

“Who was stabbed, Daniel Jackson?” Teal’c asked from the platform.

Daniel was staring at one of the knives, lost in thought. “Hmm?” The question finally got through Daniel’s abstraction and he looked up from the bundle. “Oh, sorry. I was just thinking. In the legend of Ra’s journey through the underworld, the other gods defend him from Apophis, as well as demons and monsters, with sharp knives. And we seem to have a number of very sharp knives here…”

“Knives, huh? Well, pass out the knives then, Daniel. Although I’m betting guns will do the job.” Jack took a knife from Daniel, who had a worried look on his face, and examined it. “That’s a real big knife.” He stuck the sheath through his belt. “Cast us off and come aboard, Teal’c.” Jack was glad to be moving again. He hated the feeling of being trapped. They might not know where they were going, but they were going somewhere! A small improvement was better than no improvement.

Daniel gave a knife to Sam and one to Teal’c, who untied the rope and jumped on board, pushing the barque into the waterway as he went. He was very concerned about the implication of these knives. He got one for himself. Daniel felt uncomfortably like a pirate with his Beretta in one hand and the knife in the other. He quickly followed Jack’s lead and put it in his belt. 

Rowing might have been a problem since would have been impossible to row and fight at the same time, but an unseen current propelled the barque forward into the darkness at a slow, but steady, pace.

Sam looked over the side of the barque. Something was moving near the surface. “Sir, there is something moving in the water. I can’t get a clear look, but there’s more than one. They’re swimming around the boat.”

“Let me know if it becomes a threat, Carter.” Jack was intent on the shoreline, P-90 in hand. It was probably some kind of fish, but he couldn’t imagine what kind of weird ass fish could live down here. This was one time he wasn’t wishing for his fishing pole.

As they pulled further away from the platform, the jagged rock walls gave way to dark stony plains. They could see very little of the banks. The waterway that they followed twisted through the dark landscape until it was impossible to tell how much ground had been covered.

The movement around the boat increased. As Sam watched, one of the creatures briefly broke the surface. “They’re larval goa’uld, sir! But…I’m not sensing any naquadah in their bodies. I think these are the primordial Goa’uld from P3X-888.”

Daniel’s head jerked toward Sam, his eyes wide with alarm “Be careful! They can really jump and they’re fast! If it hadn’t have been for Chaka, one of them would have got me.”

Teal’c aimed his staff weapon toward the side of the boat. “Can they sense our presence, Daniel Jackson?”

“I’m not really sure. They didn’t come after me until I went in the water, but if the movement of the barque prompts an attack…”

The movement in the water became frenzied. Some of the symbiotes began to leap toward the boat, hitting the sides and falling back into the water. They began to jump higher. One launched itself into the air, toward Jack, only to be torn apart by a burst of shells from his P-90. Suddenly, the air was filled with them. Jack and Sam sprayed ammunition over the sides, while Teal’c fired his staff weapon repeatedly, immolating all within the blast radius. 

Daniel fervently wished for a P-90. He shot at individual symbiotes with his Beretta as they left the water. The automatic clicked; empty. He had to reload, frantically pushing the clip into place. One got past the hail of fire in the air and came straight for his neck with the lightning speed he had seen on P3X-888. Daniel swung the Beretta up and fired. The head of the symbiote exploded and its body fell to the water. Then, as suddenly as the attack had started, it was over. 

Sam let out a huff of air and kept her eyes on the water. She didn’t know what she had expected, but primitive Goa’uld larva hadn’t been it.

Jack lifted his eyebrows as he looked toward Daniel and said, “Mighty fancy shootin' there, Tex.” Daniel could shoot the head off a matchstick if there was a Goa’uld behind it. Jack thought he might start drawing symbiotes on the targets at the firing range then making bets with SG-3. He could smell the money. He grinned at Daniel.

Daniel rubbed his forehead, eyes closed. “Terror is an excellent motivator.” He took a deep breath. He opened his eyes and looked out at their position.

The barque had passed into a new landscape. Small pits of flame and molten rock appeared in the stony ground, sending fumes and smoke into the air. The temperature had risen noticeably. 

Sam stared out at the landscape and grimaced. “Netu.” They had almost died on Sokar’s hellish planet. The heat, the smells, the dark, it was all bringing back unwanted memories.

“A whole lot like it. Can’t say I felt the need to revisit the experience. Of course, this is a whole lot more spacious.” Jack waved an arm toward the shore. “And there’s all this totally undrinkable water. That’s new.”

The waterway widened as the boat moved onward. It was now more difficult to see the shore. Eventually, two shapes appeared just above the surface of the water, dimly visible ahead of the barque.

“Pylons.” Daniel strained to see the objects in the darkness. There was just enough room for the barque to pass between them. 

Jack looked at Daniel, an eyebrow raised. “Pylons? I know pylons. Aren’t they small and orange? And don’t most folks call them cones?” 

“Cones, pylons, that’s a regional linguistic variation. This is a different kind of pylon, Jack. In this context, it’s a gate. Pylons are two towers that appear on either side of an entrance, or form a gateway. The various areas of the Egyptian underworld were thought to be separated by guarded pylons. There will probably be something pretty nasty at that gate.” The towers were sunk into the depths of the waterway, only flat roofs with low walls rising above it.

Teal’c pointed at the pylons as they drew closer. “O’Neill!

Jack squinted into the dark. Something was on top of the pylons. Something very large and… Unas. There was an Unas on each pylon; huge even at a distance. They dwarfed Chaka. They were larger than the Unas on Cimmeria. The barque drew them ever closer, on a path to pass between the two pylons. They were within thirty feet when the eyes of each Unas lit with an ominous, familiar glow. “Oh, great! Not just the biggest damn Unas ever, but Goa’uld Unas” 

Jack shot a look at Teal’c; they raised their weapons as one and fired at the Goa’uld. Their fire bounced off their targets, deflected uselessly into the water. “And they have personal shields.” Jack said, bitterly.

“I guess this is why we have the knives. That’s not good.” Daniel looked at the figures on the pylons with a deep frown.

Sam remembered an encounter from their first days as a team. “Daniel’s right, sir. The knives will penetrate the shields for the same reason that arrows would have breached the shield that Apophis wore on the Nox’s planet. It’s a matter of velocity. The shields are designed to protect against high velocity attack, like staff weapons.”

Teal’c examined his knife. “Indeed. There must have been a reason to provide us with these knives.”

They were drawing very near to the gate. Jack gestured to the right pylon. “Okay, knives. Teal’c, you and Carter take the one on the left. Daniel and I will take the other. This is going to be ugly, kids.” They had no time to think about what had to be done or make a plan. The boat pulled between the two pylons and stopped abruptly, without warning.

Teal’c leapt to the pylon and climbed over the waist high wall. He drove his knife toward the throat of the immense Unas. The knife passed through the shield, but was knocked aside by a huge arm as the Unas reached for him. It ripped through his TAC vest with clawed fingers that tore across his chest. 

Sam approached from behind, while it was distracted, and stabbed into its neck. She had aimed for the location of the parasite, but the knife was wrenched aside as the Unas shook her off, eyes flaring bright. There was a wound in its neck, but not the crippling blow that she had hoped to inflict. It grabbed her from the wall, where she had fallen, and swung her into the stone roof, claws biting into her arm. Sam grunted loudly as the air was driven from her lungs. Her head hit stone and her vision darkened; she struggled to hold onto consciousness. 

The second Goa’uld had not given Jack and Daniel time to attack, but had jumped into the boat. The small craft rocked wildly as the two men struggled to reach the enormous Unas, hampered by the motion and cramped space. 

Jack was knocked to the deck, but managed to bring his knife up. He drove it into the Unas’s knee. It roared with anger and tore into his arm. Jack gave a yell as it grabbed the wounded arm, ripping into it again and threw him across the boat. He hit the side and fell to the deck in a heap. The Unas slashed its claws into his leg then heard Daniel’s approach. It leapt toward him.

Daniel brought his knife up, as it reached for him, and drove it underneath the Unas’s arm and into its chest. It screamed and, digging its clawed fingers into his arms, bit down hard on his shoulder, teeth ripping deep into muscle. Daniel’s anguished howl brought Jack to his feet. 

On top of the pylon, Teal’c drove his long knife into the back of the Unas. It let out a cry of pain and swung around to face him. The Unas ripped the knife from his hands. It sliced its claws into his arm then ripped at his chest again, rending his flesh. Teal’c grimaced and drew a panting breath. He faced the Goa’uld weaponless.

Sam wiped blood from her eyes and grasped her knife. From her position on the ground, she slashed the blade across the hamstring of the nearest leg. The Unas fell to one knee. She pulled herself up and tossed her knife to Teal’c, then wrenched his knife from the Unas’s back. It struggled to pull itself upright, teetering on one leg. Teal’c gave another great blow to its chest. The Unas, knife still embedded to the hilt, toppled from the pylon and into the water. It floated there, face down, and unmoving. 

Sam bent over, hands on her knees as she gasped for breath. As she did, she saw a small plate set into the roof. Sam looked to the boat and saw the Unas there staggering, the Colonel and Daniel closing in on either side. Why hadn’t this one come after them before they’d climbed the pylon? The two Goa’uld would have been much more formidable together. A reason dawned on her. “Teal’c, look at this. I think it was guarding something.”

The Unas in the barque was bleeding badly now, bloody froth on its mouth. Daniel had struck a fatal blow. Its eyes flashed weakly. Jack lunged for it, blood running down his left arm, the knife gripped in his right. Daniel staggered to his feet. It managed to bring up the one arm and rake its claws across Jack’s neck, but lost its balance when it put its weight on its wounded knee. Daniel knocked into it with his right shoulder, powered only by adrenalin and will. Blood was pouring from the wounded left at a terrifying rate, soaking his sleeve and pooling on the deck. The Unas fell over the side into the water, struggled feebly, and was still. Wavering, Daniel reached for his bleeding shoulder then crumpled to the deck.

They were moving painfully, but Sam and Teal’c managed to pry up the metal plate with Sam’s knife blade and Teal’c’s strength. There was a cavity below. It held a statue of the same size as the Ra figure, standing upright in the hole. Sam pulled the heavy object up and rose, griping it tightly. 

Teal’c stood to check the wellbeing of his companions on the barque. He saw the Goa’uld go into the water; the boat started to move immediately. “Major Carter! We must return to the barque now!” They flung themselves, along with their prize, over the wall and into the craft.

“Carter! Get the med kit and give me some help!” There was a note in the Colonel’s voice that was as close to panic as she’d ever heard. Daniel was propped up against the side of the boat as the Colonel tried to stem the flow of blood from a terrible wound. He’d managed to pull the shoulder of Daniel’s jacket away from the injury and was trying to work as the blood running down his arm joined Daniel’s on the deck. 

Sam dropped the statue next to her pack and grabbed the med kit. She rushed back and threw the lid open, pulling out antiseptic and pressure bandages. As she attempted to clean Daniel’s wound and stop the bleeding, Sam fought back panic of her own. There was a lot of blood... a bite wound that went deep into muscle. “You’re going to be okay, Daniel. Hang in there!” No arteries were severed. Relief made her hands shake as she dressed the wound tightly. She had never been more grateful for her field medical training. 

Jack allowed himself to fall against one of the rowing benches. Much good he’d been. Daniel had pretty much taken out the big stinky monster by himself. “Way to go, Daniel,” he said quietly. He grabbed one of the pressure bandages, pulled off his jacket and vest, and held it to the worst of the wounds on his arm. Jack watched Sam and Daniel for a moment, but pain and regret got the better of him and he closed his eyes.

Sam checked Daniel’s condition as she wrapped the lesser, but still deep, wounds on his arms. He was pale and sweating, more than the heat could justify and his breathing was shallower than she liked. His eye lids were half closed. “You stay awake, Daniel! I have a nice new statue for you to see.” She taped a bandage in place and put a hand on his arm; he was smiling at her a little.

His eyebrows twitched upwards and he murmured “Statue? What’s it look like?” Daniel’s eyes were almost closed, now.

“You’ll have to stay awake and find out.” She pulled his shredded jacket back into place as gently as she could. “The Colonel and Teal’c are both wounded; you’re going to have to wait a bit while I help them. I need you to stay awake, okay? I think you’re in shock. Do you think you can hold down some fruit drink? You lost a lot of blood - we need to raise your blood sugar and get some liquid in you. I’ll give you a couple of painkillers, too – that should take the edge off. I’ll leave you a canteen; drink as much fluid as you can.” She needed to give Daniel something to focus on. It would help him stay awake. There was nothing Sam could do about the loss of blood pressure caused by the bleeding. Even as the thought crossed her mind, she pushed it away. Daniel was going to be fine. He was going to be fine… He nodded woozily and tried gamely to keep his eyes open.

Sam ripped open an MRE and took out a packet of drink crystals. She mixed it for Daniel and handed it to him along with her canteen, a couple of painkillers, and a broad spectrum antibiotic. Sam took out meds for herself, as well, swallowing them dry. She had a nasty headache and her arm was aching.

“I’m okay, Sam. Check on Jack.” Actually, he didn’t feel very okay at all. He was pretty sure he wasn’t fooling Sam, but she couldn’t heal him by watching with that unnerving expression. Daniel brought the pills to his mouth, swallowing them with the grape drink, and then applied himself to consuming the liquid as instructed. “See?” Sam nodded reluctantly. She dragged herself to her feet and turned to the Colonel. Daniel gritted his teeth against the pain, leaning his head back against the side of the barque.

Jack was still propped up by a bench as Sam approached. His eyes closed and there was a frown on his face. Teal’c was sitting on the bench next to him, having moved the oars, and speaking quietly. He kept his eyes on the dark shore. “That was indeed a great battle, O’Neill. We have prevailed over mighty enemies. We shall certainly prevail against the Goa’uld, Am-Heh. We then shall return in triumph to tell of his defeat.”

Sam smiled at Teal’c, who nodded in his dignified way. She was grateful for his calm presence. Sam crouched beside the Colonel. “Sir? I need to check your wounds.”

He opened his eyes and looked at her, the frown deepening. “Daniel?”

“He’s stable, sir. We’ll have to keep an eye on him for a bit, but I think he’s going to be okay.” 

Jack let out a huge sigh. “Good. That’s good.”

The Colonel wasn’t in as bad a way as Daniel, but his face was drawn with pain. She reached out to examine the wounds on his arm and saw that his breathing was rapid. Some shock here too, and a lot of discomfort, but without such serious blood loss or muscle damage. “How are you doing, Sir? Do you have any wounds besides the ones on your extremities and neck?”

“I’m doing just swell, Carter. And, no, Daniel got beat up for both of us.” He looked away from her.

“Sir -”

“Sorry, Carter. I’ll just shut up now.”

The wounds on his arm and thigh were ugly, but shouldn’t be life threatening, unless infection set in. They would be back at the SGC before that became a problem. They would… She applied the antiseptic and dressed the wounds, starting with the deepest, on his leg. 

“Sir, Teal’c and I found another statue in the pylon. We think that’s why it stayed there instead of jumping into the boat, where it could have fought more efficiently. It was hampered by the lack of space to maneuver.”

“Are you trying to make me feel better, Carter?”

“No, Sir! I mean, I’m just telling you what happened.” The claw marks on his neck were shallow, but disturbing. If the Goa’uld had been able to attack with more strength, he would have died almost immediately. Sam didn’t mention that. She cleaned the cuts with the antiseptic. They were shallow enough not to need bandaging. Finally, she handed him some of the painkiller and antibiotics. 

Jack summoned a smile for his second. “Thanks, Flo… And Carter – don’t forget to take care of yourself.”

“I won’t, sir.” She rose and turned to the Jaffa. “Okay, Teal’c, let’s have a look at you.” 

Teal’c had deep claw marks across his chest and on his arm. The ones on his arm were the worst; she treated those first. The others were bleeding but were relatively shallow. Rather than being localized as the wounds on Daniel and the Colonel had been, they were spread out across his body. Sam knew he must be in considerable pain, but he didn’t let it show. “How are you doing, Teal’c? Are you in much pain?”

“My wounds are minor, Major Carter. I have no need of assistance. I believe that it is Daniel Jackson who most requires your aid.” 

“Daniel is fine for now, Teal’c. There’s no reason not to clean these cuts. Some of them are pretty deep.” Sam cleaned the wounds and applied bandages. He refused her offer of painkillers as she knew he would. Teal’c kept up his watch over the boat and its occupants the entire time. 

Sam knew that she and Teal’c had been fortunate to come through the battle without more severe injuries like the Colonel and Daniel. Of course, having Teal’c on your side was like having two men with you; maybe three. And the Goa’uld on the pylon had been hampered in ways the other had not. She hoped that made the Colonel feel less… responsible for what happened to Daniel, but she knew it wouldn’t. If both had come into the boat at once, the Unas may have prevailed, or some of them might have died. That didn’t bear thinking about. She reached into the med kit and took out another bandage, poured some antiseptic on her arm, and covered the wound.

The barque had continued to move forward while she had been patching up the team. The number and size of the areas of fire had increased, as has the ambient light. The heat increased steadily, adding to her discomfort. The after effects of the desperate fight and the strain of caring for everyone suddenly hit her and she had to sit down. Sam dropped stiffly onto one of the benches and put her head in her hands, momentarily overcome with exhaustion.

“Sam?”

She swung her head around, with a worried look. She should have checked on Daniel as soon as she finished with Teal’c. “Daniel?” She moved over to the side of the boat where Daniel lay and knelt beside him.

He watched her carefully, peering over his splattered glasses, half-closed eyes concerned. “Are you alright, Sam? Your head looks pretty gory, you know. How’s your vision?” He noticed that her movements were stiff and slow.

She reached up and touched the side of her head where the impact with the stone had opened her scalp. Her hair was crusty with dried blood. She remembered smearing it across her face in an effort to clear her eyes. “I kind of forgot about that. It’s not bleeding anymore, so… I’m okay, I just look disgusting. No blurred vision or anything to indicate a concussion. It got me in the arm a little, but it’s not too bad. I put a bandage on it.” She didn’t say anything about the headache. Daniel’s color was better and he seemed more alert; he was very pale, but improving. “How are you feeling?”

“Better. It must have been the magic grape drink. You did good, Sam.” Daniel gave her a smile and shifted, knocking his shoulder against the barque. “Ow! Uh, okay, so it still hurts –a lot, actually… It’s my left arm though, that’s lucky.” He leaned his head back and regarded her wearily, picking up the canteen.

“Lucky, huh?” Sam was afraid of what she might say to that, so she just smiled in return and leaned against the side of the boat next to him.

Jack carefully pulled on his jacket and vest took stock of his team. This needed to end soon. He watched Daniel drinking water like it was going to fix him right up. Tiny doubts crossed his mind: about his capability with a P-90, or to walk the distances they might have to walk, about Daniel’s ability to fight off the effects of blood loss. Jack crushed those doubts. They were exhausted and covered in blood; their own, each other’s and Unas. But they won. They were all alive. Messed up, but alive. He felt an intense wave of relief that Daniel was conscious and talking quietly with Carter. Who knew where this boat was taking them now? It was time to take advantage of the momentary calm. 

“Okay, campers. Let’s get some rest. I’ll take the first watch, Teal’c; you take the second and Carter, the third. We’ll switch off every 20 minutes – the boat ride probably won’t be a long one.” Although there was no obvious destination in sight and no immediate threat. Jack wondered if Am-Heh expected the boat to be full of bodies or primitive Goa’uld at this point. It felt odd that there had been no new attack. He knocked on a wooden bench, sorry for the thought.

Daniel raised his good arm slightly, from his prone position against the side of the barque. “I’m feeling better now, Jack. I can take a watch.”

Jack had a feeling that was the drugs talking and would last until Daniel moved, or tried to stand up. He raised a hand. “Next time, Daniel. Not every archeologist can say that they dispatched a Goa’uld Unas with a nothing but a big knife. You just rest on your laurels this time. We need you in reasonable working order when this boat reaches whatever comes next.”

Daniel accepted that with a small smile and a nod. He settled himself against the side of the barque with a slight wince. “Sam! I almost forgot. What was that about a statue?”

Jack answered for her. “Rest now, Daniel. Crazy Goa’uld toys later.” 

Sam slid down the wall until she was lying on the deck and closed her eyes.


	4. A Source of Power - Chapter 4

Jack was right, unfortunately. The boat didn’t travel far. Carter’s watch was just about done when they came within sight of another set of pylons, taller than the first. There was a stone arch joining the two towers, a few feet over the high prow. At least this time there was no visible threat. The barque pulled beneath the gate and stopped, as abruptly as before. 

Sam looked over the side of the boat. “I’d love to know how the boat is being controlled. There’s nothing visible. This technology might have a lot of applications. I wish I could take a look at the exterior of the hull.”

Daniel winced. “That would be worse than going for a swim in a Venetian canal.”

“Maybe it’s on tracks, Carter. Like a really gross ‘It’s a Small World’ ride.” Jack hummed a few bars while turning and viewing the area around them. “Nothing to fight. Daniel, what do we have here?”

When the pylons had become visible, Daniel had gotten to his feet unsteadily and retrieved his knife. His face was pale and drawn as he stood next to Jack. “There are some glyphs on the top of the gate.” He moved back to get a better view. “It says ‘beware of the lake.’ That sounds familiar.” Daniel sifted through remembered information, trying to place the phrase. After a minute he said, “It sounds like one of the utterances of the early pyramid texts.” He frowned at the glyphs. “That’s unexpected…”

Jack gave him an incredulous look. “And you fully expected the rest of this place?”

“Uh, no. Pretty much out of the blue for me too. This is different… but not important right now, I guess. Anyway, the utterances were chants that were supposed to ensure the safety of the deceased in the underworld. I just have to remember which one…beware of the lake… I think it’s a reference to the lake of fire. That would appear fairly near the end of the texts…” 

Daniel went through the utterances, thinking of the sarcophagus chamber of Unis. He looked at Jack. “‘Unis, beware the lake of fire.’ Sam, where’s that statue? I better have a look at it now.”

Jack looked alarmed. “Daniel? What do Unas have to do with it?”

“Nothing Jack. Unis is the name of a pharaoh, although one of the possible spellings is the same. Which is interesting…” Daniel sank to a bench and wiped his sweating forehead.

Sam retrieved the statue from where she had dumped it, unceremoniously, in her concern for Daniel. She hadn’t had time to look at it before. It was similar to the Ra statue, but where that was covered in gold, this statue was jet black. The head was a snake rather than the falcon head of Ra, but also had ruby eyes. It looked just like the Serpent Guards with their helmets closed. She took the statue to Daniel who set down his knife and examined their find as it lay in his lap. 

“Apophis”, Daniel said, unsurprised. “It’s different than I would have expected, though. On Earth, he was depicted as a giant snake.”

Jack grimaced. “How apt. Or is that asp?”

Daniel tossed a pained look at Jack which had nothing to do with his shoulder. He looked up at Sam and Teal’c. “I thought the boat moved because we killed the guardians, but now I think it’s more likely that it was because we retrieved this. Symbolically, we captured Apophis in the name of Ra. Teal’c, have you seen a statue like this before?””

Teal’c was uncomfortable with doing anything in the name of Ra, even symbolically. His eyebrow rose. “I have not, Daniel Jackson. The Goa’uld have no use for small statues such as these, although they do build large statues and monuments.” 

Daniel nodded at Teal’c, then examined the statue more closely. He raised his voice excitedly. “Look, there’s an opening in the chest of the statue. It’s about the same size as the knife blades! I think I know what to do with this… There’s an offering table under the platform, beneath the Ra statue. I thought it might be important. This might need to go there.” 

Jack gave Daniel a serious look. “And you didn’t mention it. Daniel, you need to tell me when something might be important.”

Daniel’s eyebrows rose on his pale face and he looked as though pigs were lining up for take-off. “Uh, Jack. Past history leads me to conclude that if I’d said. ‘Oh, look Jack, a table! That might be important!’ I wouldn’t have got a very positive response. I was just waiting until I had some idea of why it might be important. It saves on aggravation.” 

Jack frowned at the archeologist. “I’ll agree, that’s generally true. It was even mostly true up top…uprings, whatever. Most of the time, I can tell if what you’re telling me is something I need to hear, but not down here. So keep me in the loop, okay?”

Teal’c watched this exchange. He was very glad that his comrades were able to engage in such banter. Had they not, he would truly have been concerned. O’Neill was injured, and Daniel Jackson looked most unwell, but he believed that they would both survive. And after the number of times O’Neill had refused to listen to the words of Daniel Jackson, he found this most amusing.

“Okay, Jack, but you may wish you hadn’t said that. In fact, I can almost guarantee it.” Daniel gestured to Sam to take back the statue. He pulled himself to his feet, staggering slightly, then picked up his knife. Daniel slowly made his way to the platform at the back of the boat. There was a low table, covered with black tiles, beneath it. Someone had thrown a pack on it. “Can we not use the offering table as a luggage rack?” 

He scowled as Jack shrugged, limped over to the pack, and tossed it to the side. Daniel crouched down and ducked under the platform, moving his shoulder as little as possible. Pain crossed his face, betraying his lack of success. He put his knife on the table and ran his hand over the tiles. “Here it is. Sam, can you put the statue down with the opening over this spot?”

Sam complied, adjusting the statue carefully. She saw where this was going. Why was a mystery, of course, like everything about the pyramid and Am-Heh’s underworld.

Daniel picked up the knife, still covered with the blood of the Unas, and fit it through the statue and the break that Daniel had found in the tiles. The blade slid through the statue to the hilt and the ruby eyes flared bright, then died. He backed out from under the low platform, wincing. “Okay, Apophis is dead. Symbolically, this time.”

Jack raised an eyebrow. “I like the other way better. So, what next? I notice that we’re still not going anywhere.”

“Oh, that wasn’t the key to this gate. I just thought we better see what was intended for the statue before we passed through another gate. While there are many myths about the underworld, such as the number of gates and what guards them, the one constant is that you have to complete a task before you can move through the next gate. So…” Daniel spread his hands.

“Oh. Okay. Let’s go then. Do your gate thing.” Jack moved out of Daniel’s way, so he could move to the front of the boat unimpeded. He was doing damn well for someone who was collapsed on the deck a little more than two hours ago, but was clearly in a lot of pain. Jack wasn’t feeling too great either, what being kind of cut up himself, but at least he didn’t have an Uber-Unas try to take his shoulder apart with its teeth. Jack thought about that and looked at his watch. “Daniel, hold off. What would happen if we stayed here for a while?”

Daniel stopped and turned back to Jack, surprised. “Stayed? Well, nothing I suppose. We are probably supposed to starve here if we can’t figure out the way to get through, or die in the water. I mean, it’s possible that there is some kind of secondary attack, but I think being stuck at the gate forever would pretty much cover the whole dying thing. I guess I don’t know, Jack.” Sensing a protracted discussion, Daniel lowered himself shakily to the deck and leaned against the side of the barque. Staying upright wasn’t getting any easier.

“We’ve been down here for almost five hours. We’re way overdue for food, we’re beat up, and we’re tired; I say we call it a night, eat, and continue in what passes for the morning.” Jack knew he’d made the right call when he saw a look of intense relief on Daniel’s face. Which he hid quickly, of course. Carter didn’t look too sad about it, either. Teal’c glanced at Daniel, then nodded in agreement. 

Jack retrieved his pack from the deck, where he’d tossed it earlier. He took a seat on one of the benches. Although he wouldn’t have said anything, Jack had to admit that he was pretty glad to sit down. His leg wasn’t doing so great.

Teal’c gathered his and Daniel’s packs and sat on the deck next to the wounded archeologist. “Daniel Jackson. I shall prepare your meal.” He opened Daniel’s pack and inspected the selection of MRE’s.

“Thanks Teal’c.” He noticed that even the Jaffa was moving a bit stiffly. They really had all been beaten up. Daniel leaned his head back and closed his eyes. “I’m not going to sleep, or anything. Just resting my eyes...”

“Which menu do you desire, Daniel Jackson? You have Roast Beef, Country Captain Chicken, Chicken with Noodles, and Beef Ravioli.”

“I’ll have the Chicken with Noodles, please.” Daniel opened his eyes and smiled tiredly. He wasn’t all that sure that he felt up to eating, but he thought he could probably manage noodles if not the chicken. He seemed to have used up what little energy he had dealing with the Apophis statue. He’d better try to eat, anyway.

Teal’c opened the MRE and removed the cheese spread, which he carefully applied to the crackers. He stacked them up, wrapped them in a tissue and passed them to his teammate. “Daniel Jackson, perhaps you will wish to eat these while you wait for the food to heat.” Teal’c began to heat the meal.

Daniel smiled. Crackers with cheese spread seemed…not tempting, but Teal’c was working so hard to get some food into him, he didn’t have the heart not to try, so he nibbled on a cracker. 

His head was spinning. Between the pain of his wound, exhaustion, and the painkillers, he didn’t feel like he could handle much more than staying awake. All the little details involved in something as simple as preparing an MRE felt beyond him. He wouldn’t have even tried.

He almost laughed when he saw Sam heading over with more fruit drink. They were certainly taking good care of him. He didn’t laugh, of course. That would be poor thanks for their concern. Besides, he really wanted that drink.

Sam couched down beside Daniel and Teal’c and handed another grape drink and an MRE packet to Daniel. “Here’s the fruit from my MRE, Daniel. You might find it easier going if you can’t handle the main course. I’ll bring you some more painkillers before we go to sleep.” Then she waved an instant coffee packet in front of him. “I shouldn’t give you this, Janet would kill me.”

He took the packet before she changed her mind. “Thanks, Sam. You have no idea how much I appreciate this right now! And the fruit will be just the thing.” Daniel was thinking that food might not be so bad after all. The crackers were going down okay, and fruit sounded good. Painkillers sounded really good.

Teal’c reached into Daniel’s MRE and retrieved the cocoa powder, which he handed to Sam with a regal nod. Then he handed Daniel his meal, which had been carefully arranged in bite sized portions.

Sam grinned. “Thanks, Teal’c!” She rose and went back to her meal which was waiting on one of the benches.

“Yes, thanks. I really appreciate the help, Teal’c” Daniel started with the noodles.

“It is my pleasure, Daniel Jackson.” Teal’c reached into his own pack and picked out a meal at random. It was Jambalaya. He smiled, pleased with the choice. This cheese spread had peppers.

Jack was watching all of this from his seat on the bench as he ate his Roast Beef MRE. It was at times like this that he was especially proud of his team. They were in a really bad situation with no known way out, they were wounded and tired, but they were looking out for each other and their morale was…remarkable. They were really something.

The team ate their meals quietly, occasionally making a joke or a light remark. No one wanted to talk about anything important. They just wanted to eat, sleep, and not think about where they were. At one point, Daniel realized that his glasses were still splattered with gore and was forced to clean them with water from his canteen. When they had reached the hot beverages and dessert portion of the meal, Sam came around with a second dose of painkillers for all those who wanted them, which was everyone except Teal’c.

Jack swallowed his pills with the last of his instant coffee. “We’ll do two hour, 40 minute watches. Daniel, what I said before about next time? I lied. You sit this one out.”

“I’m not going to argue, Jack. I think I might have been a little overambitious, before.”

Jack gave a little smile and nodded. “I’ll take the first watch -”

Sam interrupted. “Sir, I don’t think that’s a good idea. It would be best if you got some rest and kept your weight off that wound in your leg for a little while.”

“Carter, I can -”

“O’Neill, it will cause me no distress to carry out the first watch. I believe this would be the wisest course of action.” Teal’c rose and picked up his staff weapon without waiting for an answer. He moved to the prow of the barque.

Daniel gave Jack a serious look, eyebrows raised. “Jack.”

Jack rubbed his face with both hands. “Gah!” He let his hands drop and said, “Okay! Okay! The whole darn lot of you win. I know when I’m beat. When’s my watch, then, Carter?”

“Third, sir, I’ll take the second.”

“Well, it’s good you have that all sorted out.” Jack stretched out on the deck, pointedly turned away from them, and feigned sleep.

Sam and Daniel shared a glance and grinned. Sam helped him lie down with as little pain as possible, which was far from none, and lay down near the platform. She was asleep in minutes.

The night passed without incident. Apparently, Am-Heh considered starvation an adequate death for those who failed to get through the gate. They didn’t bother with hot meals in the morning, but settled for pound cake or toaster pastry pilfered from MRE’s, and coffee. Or in Teal’c’s case, apple cider. Sam passed out a new round of antibiotics as well as the painkillers, changed their bandages, and they were ready to go.

Jack motioned Daniel to proceed, hoping that, once again, the archeologist could pull a giant rabbit out of his hat. They were all stiffer than they were yesterday, even Teal’c, and no less sore. They were a whole lot less exhausted, though. Daniel’s color was almost normal and he seemed much stronger, although that wasn’t really saying a lot. Kittens were stronger than Daniel had been. Jack had a feeling it was a pretty near thing. He hoped they found a nice Stargate real soon.

They moved to the prow and Daniel said loudly, “The messengers of your ka have come to you, the messengers of your father have come to you, the messengers of Ra have come to you.” He repeated it three more times and the boat started forward again.

Jack raised his eyebrows. “Well! That was easy.”  
Daniel glanced at him, raising an eyebrow in return. “If you happen to know utterance 214, line 136, of the pyramid texts, then yeah.” 

Sam dropped her head to hide a grin. She was feeling a lot more encouraged. The night’s sleep and the dissipation of her headache made things seem a little better.

“Right…. So, Daniel. Just wondering, how many more of these gates?” He led the way back to the benches, although Teal’c stayed at the prow, eyes on the water.

Daniel sat down and stretched his legs out in front of him with a sigh. “It’s hard to say, Jack. In Egyptian mythology, the number of gates in the underworld varied widely in different time periods. Our earliest records show seven gates, but that increased to twelve. It’s not like there’s a real underworld and this is a copy. I just can’t figure out why a Goa’uld would want to recreate some version of the Egyptian underworld!” 

“The myths probably started as commemoration of a battle between Ra and Apophis in which Ra was triumphant. This… journey has only followed the writings conceptually, except for the utterance. That doesn’t appear in the myths at all. Daniel frowned as he thought of the pyramid text again. “The utterance was the obvious solution, but I was quite surprised at its use. We’ve always assumed that they were conceived sometime after the departure of Ra. Well, I’ve always assumed that.” He raised an eyebrow. “The rest of the archeological community would put it a little differently…” 

“Anyway, there’s no way to tell how many gates there might be.” Daniel turned his head to look at Jack, who had taken a seat next to him. Sam had opted to sit on the deck and lean against the side. “But the reference to the lake makes me think that we might be close to the Lake of Fire. It’s possible this was the last one.” 

“I have to say, I really hope so. I’m so looking forward to the Lake of Fire.” Jack scowled and looked out over the prow, although there was nothing to be seen.

The barque drifted forward to wherever their destination might be. They rested as best they could, and waited for some sign as to what was to come. As air grew progressively hotter and began to smell more strongly of smoke, sweat began to stain their clothes, joining the dried blood. The horizon took on a strange red glow.

Daniel took in the red light. That was not a good sign. “There was more than one Lake of Fire in the underworld. The most important one was a step in the judgment of the dead. They were judged by a tribunal of baboons at the Lake of Fire. If you were righteous, it would appear as water. You could drink from the lake and be refreshed. If you weren’t though…”

“Not so much? Fire? Nasty Baboon stuff?” Jack waved a hand vaguely.

Daniel nodded. “Pretty much. The righteous could also turn into fire and destroy their enemies” The heat was increasingly uncomfortable. He felt a bit dizzy and sweat began to escape from under his bandana as it had outside the pyramid.

Sam looked intrigued. “I wonder what that might signify. Maybe some kind of flame weapon?”

“That would be cool. And we’re pretty righteous, aren’t we?” Jack spread his hands. “Ra’s still sitting pretty and we killed Barbie-Apophis.”

Daniel took off his glasses and rubbed his eyes. “I’m not sure that’s the kind of Lake of Fire this will be. Am-Heh wasn’t part of any of the judgment myths. We really don’t know anything about him other than that he dwelt in an underworld on a lake of fire and had an insatiable thirst for sacrifice. The reason I mentioned the other lake of fire was to bring up the fact that this might not be what we expect.” 

“It may appear as normal water unless we do something to prove that we aren’t righteous. And it’s important to note that righteous to the Egyptians meant not breaking the laws of the gods or showing them a lack of proper respect.” Daniel put his glasses back on and gave them a significant look. “We might find that difficult. So far, we would probably be considered righteous, but I’m guessing we won’t be feeling all that respectful if we find him.” 

Jack appreciated the new visibility but more than a little concerned about just how much fire might be ahead. “I’m thinking that we’re not heading for cool, refreshing water, Daniel. It’s getting a lot hotter.”

“I’d wish I was I was wrong, except that it’s our best bet to find a way out. Where ever Am-Heh is, or was, he must have had a way to the Stargate.”

“What kind of laws are we talking about, Daniel?” Sam saw a lot of opportunity for trouble there. She brushed back sweat damped hair and wished for a bandanna like Daniel’s. She amended that: a cleaner bandanna than Daniel’s. “Religious law is complicated in monotheistic religions, let alone a religion with as many gods as Ancient Egypt.” 

“The Egyptians didn’t see daily life as separate from religion. They didn’t even have a word for religion, it was just part of living; the natural order of things. Sacred and mundane weren’t separate, but were part of a whole. Every action was important on a larger scale. So, that’s another thing we don’t know, Sam.” 

Daniel stared at the orange horizon in front of the barque, like a nightmarish dawn. “Again, we have to remember that all of this means something completely different to a Goa’uld than it would have meant to the ancient Egyptians. That makes it really hard to predict which aspects he may use and how.”

Jack was scowling and rubbing his forehead. “I know I asked to hear everything that might be important but…wow. That’s the last time I say that. I don’t know what I was thinking. Well, I do, still…wow.”

Teal’c called to them from the prow. “I believe there is something ahead!”

Sam, Jack, and Daniel joined him as quickly as their battered bodies would allow, eyes straining to make out what Teal’c had seen. The rocky shores narrowed sharply in the distance. The pits of fire now dominated the landscape right up to the shoreline. Soon they would be passing through channel barely twice the width of the boat, mere feet away from the inferno.

Sam looked at the channel skeptically. “Daniel, how flammable is a papyriform boat?

He raised his eyebrows. “Gee, I don’t know, Sam. How flammable is wood?” 

Sam rolled her eyes at Daniel. “We may have a problem. The spontaneous ignition temperature of wood is 572 degrees Fahrenheit. I would guess that the fire encroaching on the shore is that hot, probably hotter. If we move quickly through the middle of the channel without stopping, I think we’ll make it in time, but if we stop, even for a few minutes, the boat will spontaneously combust.

Daniel frowned at her. “Sam, if it’s hot enough to spontaneously combust the boat, won’t we, er… cook?”

“Well, yes. But the boat will burn first, so cooking won’t be our first problem.”

“So, burning alive or risking the yucky, possibly contaminated, critter ridden water, then cooking? That’s what we’re looking at?” Jack was rubbing his forehead again and feeling way beyond frustrated.

Teal’c interjected, “O’Neill, I believe the water in the channel is very hot. There is considerable steam rising.”

“Aw, for cryin’ out loud! Daniel, can you see anything up ahead that makes you think we’ll stop? Gate thingys or anything?”

“Nothing visible, Jack. But there are those oars…”

“Right. And we’ve had to use everything else in this damn boat, so we better get ready to row. That’s just outstanding! Daniel, there’s no way you can do this, is there?”

“Probably not. But I kind of think I have to… It’s not like a row boat where you can hold an oar with one hand. Each oar is meant to be manned by one person and there has to be the same amount of pull from both sides, or the barque won’t go straight. That would send us into the side of the channel and closer to the fire.”

They were silent for a moment. Sam looked at Daniel a frown and said, “Daniel, you can’t. Your shoulder will start bleeding again. You’ll probably even do more damage. You could end up permanently disabled.”

“That is unacceptable, Daniel Jackson. I shall row on one side. O’Neill and Major Carter will row on the other. You will tell us if we are following a straight path and when to pull harder.” Teal’c looked implacable. 

Jack clapped his hands together. “And we have a plan! Let’s get those oars in place.”

They quickly retrieved the oars from narrow space between the benches and slipped them into the oar locks. Teal’c took his place on a bench near the center of the craft, oar in hand, held above the water. Sam and Jack did the same on the other side, opposite Teal’c.  
The heat was now incredibly intense and made worse by the steam rising from the channel ahead. Their clothes were sodden and sweat poured down their faces. The roar of the flames became loud, drowning out their voices.

Daniel moved to the prow. “We’re entering the channel.” He estimated the distance to the pass in the cliffs at the end. “It looks like it’s about a hundred feet long,” he shouted over the noise. “Here we go!” 

The sides of the waterway suddenly closed in. There were flames rising from pits of fire barely four feet away from the sides of the craft on either side. The air was hot enough to burn as they gasped for breath in fiery canal. The barque continued about half way into the channel, and then stopped, dead in the water.

“Go!” Daniel signaled the team, with a wave of his hand. He leaned over the front of the barque to check their position. He wished desperately that he could join them, feeling entirely helpless as the heat from the fire and the steam beat against his face. “We really need to move now…”

The oars hit in a simultaneous motion and dug deep into the water with Jack and Sam timing their movements to those of Teal’c. The barque foundered for a moment, then began to pull forward at a fast pace. All three were pulling hard, the heat beating at them and making sweat slicked hands slip on the oars. The roar of the fire was deafening.

Daniel eyed the channel, gauging the distance to each side, ready to correct them the barque began to pull toward one side or the other. They had to reach the jagged cliff at the end, through which the canal passed, before their craft burned, before they died from the heat. Ten feet; forty feet to go. The barque began to veer to the right. He waved a hand ‘up’ to Sam and Jack, ‘down’ to Teal’c. The craft evened out briefly then turned quickly to the left. Daniel frantically gave the ‘up’ signal to Teal’c. The barque straightened slowly. Twenty feet; thirty feet to go. As the heat from the fire burnt his skin and the steam scorched his lungs, Daniel watched the team struggle to keep the barque moving forward

Blisters were already forming as her hands were rubbed raw as she tried to keep a grip on the oar. Sam blinked the sweat from her eyes and kept a close eye on Teal’c for pace, and Daniel, for signs of trouble. The stain on her muscles was agonizing as she pulled the oar with all of her strength.

They were going mostly straight, but there was a slight drift to the right. Daniel decided to wait a minute before he said anything. The overcorrection had been worse than the drift. He looked over his steam covered glasses at Sam and Jack, trying to determine when he should have Teal’c ease up. He could see that they couldn’t pull any harder. Teal’c was sweating as much as the rest of them and showing as much discomfort as Daniel had ever seen in him, but was still rowing tirelessly. Thirty feet; twenty feet to go.

The wounds on Jack’s arm and leg burned as he fought to keep time with Teal’c. Sweat had soaked right through the bandages and the sting of salt added to his pain. He gritted his teeth and looked from Teal’c, who rowed with a fortitude he envied, to Daniel, who was looking worried.

Daniel gave a sign to Teal’c to ease up. He hoped that this didn’t lead to another wild swing in the other direction. The temperature had gotten so hot that he didn’t think they could afford even the few seconds it would take to straighten their path. Steam was flowing over the prow as they passed through the water and his face stung like he was standing over a kettle. Forty feet; ten feet to go.

Teal’c glanced at O’Neill and Major Carter. They had little energy left in them although they fought valiantly to continue. He, himself, could feel the strain of muscles used in an unfamiliar way, of the unbearable heat against his skin. When Daniel Jackson had motioned him to lessen his pull, he had done so just slightly, but he would have to slow further if they did not reach the end of the channel soon.

They were almost there. Daniel held onto the prow and gasped for breath. He could see that Jack and Sam were close to collapse. He saw Teal’c adjust his stroke as they faltered. It felt as though the oxygen was being consumed by the fires around them. They couldn’t afford to slow down now. They were so close! They had almost reached the cliff through which the channel passed. “We’re almost through! Just a little more!” He pointed to the front and waved his arm wildly. “Come on!” He saw them put everything they had left into their strokes.   
Stone rose up on either side of them as they moved through the pass. The boat shot forward into the cool blue waters of an underground lake and the temperature plunged. Daniel slid down the prow to the deck, gasping the chill air with relief. As he raised a shaking hand to remove his glasses, he saw that it was burnt like he’d spent a day in the hot sun, and covered with small blisters.

Jack let go of the oar and collapsed across two of the benches. His lungs were heaving in an effort to take in the oxygen they had been denied. His arms and legs were shaking from the strain. He closed his eyes and let the cool air wash over him.

Sam let herself collapse to the deck where she splayed out, letting the air cool her skin as it chilled her sweat soaked clothes. A tiny voice in her mind whispered about the effects of too rapid cooling after exposure to intense heat, but she ignored it, as she took deep, gasping breaths. She could feel the pain of the cut in her arm. That same little voice told her that the Colonel’s wounds were much worse and may have reopened, but she let herself ignore that for the moment, too.

Teal’c allowed himself to be still, hunched over the oar, breathing deeply, as in Kel’no’reem. He enjoyed the feeling of the sweat chilling on his skin, and released the tension in his muscles. As he sat up to survey the high cliffs surrounding this new place, the barque began to move. It was, once again, propelled by an unseen force. Teal’c rose from the bench and moved to the front of the barque. He offered a hand to Daniel Jackson. 

Daniel lifted a blistered hand and waved it in front of him. “Uh, thanks anyway. I think I’ll just get up myself.” He pushed off from the deck, holding his injured shoulder stiffly, and climbed to his feet. “So. Where are we going?” He wiped his glasses on his shirt and put them back on.

“I believe our destination is that dock, Daniel Jackson.” Teal’c pointed to a break in the cliffs that surrounded the lake. A stone platform, not unlike the one they had left, sat in an alcove set into the cliff face. There was a mooring post attached to the edge of the platform, mirroring the one at which they had found the barque. 

“Ah. Well, good.” Daniel took a deep breath and let it out with a sigh. “I’m tired of boats.”

Jack and Sam had picked themselves up, Sam groaning, Jack complaining, and joined Teal’c and Daniel at the front of the barque.

Jack grimaced, stretching his sore shoulders. “I am going to be so stiff in the morning!

The voice of duty had pushed itself to the fore in Sam’s mind. She gauged the distance between the dock and the barque and said, “Sir, I think it will take us about half an hour to reach the dock at this pace. I’d like to check everyone’s bandages while we have a moment.”   
Sam pulled out the med kit and quickly changed bandages where it was required. She knew that Daniel’s shoulder wound required medical attention that she couldn’t give and she was worried that it was looking infected. She also thought that he might have a fever, but that could be related to the extreme heat to which they had been exposed. She’d have to check again later.

The rowing had started new bleeding in the wound on the Colonel’s arm, but the leg wound, painful though it must be, had not been aggravated. Infection was looking like a real possibility with both wounds, just like Daniel’s. All she could do was continue with the antibiotics.

Teal’c announced that he no longer required bandages and she didn’t try to argue with him. 

Finally, she changed her own bandage and gave Daniel a tube of burn ointment. His face wasn’t as burnt as his hands, but was very red. “Daniel, next time you’re in a river of boiling water, don’t lean out so far. Okay?

He lifted an eyebrow. “But, Sam, you know I try to play it safe. I’m only a scholar, after all. An ivory tower occupant.”

She stared at him for a second, at the sweat tracks in the dirt on his red face, at his soaked and filthy bandanna, at his deliberately innocent blue eyes, at the man to whom never played it safe, if he thought of risks at all. Daniel was as from being an 'ivory tower' academic as you could get. Sam gave a loud snort then started laughing uncontrollably. A grin split his face. They leaned against the side of the barque and laughed until tears ran down their faces.

Jack and Teal’c looked at each other and back at to them. Teal’c’s eyebrow had climbed to its highest. Jack grinned and said, “Teal’c, let’s move the gear to the front of the boat.” The two of them gathered the packs and canteens that had been left scattered around and moved them to a single location near the prow, along with their P-90’s and Teal’c’s staff weapon.

Sam and Daniel collected themselves and went to the platform, still snickering, to get the Ra stature. Daniel thought they should leave the Apophis statue where it was, since taking the knife out might change something. Sam put the statue in her pack and wondered if that would be considered disrespectful in light of Daniel’s words, but she needed her hands free to fire her weapon. She also collected their flashlights, and the remaining knives, since Daniel wasn’t sure if they would need them again. 

They joined Teal’c and Jack by the pile of belongings just as the barque pulled up to the mooring post in perfect alignment with the platform. Sam and Jack clipped their P-90s to their TAC vests and Teal’c picked up his staff weapon. 

Sam passed a flashlight to the Colonel and another to Teal’c. They trained them on the platform.

Jack looked at Daniel. “So we can just get off the boat? No riddles or booby traps?”

Daniel examined the platform “I think so. I don’t see anything here that would indicate a problem. I think we are supposed to be here, for whatever reason. Sam?”

“I don’t see any problem either, sir. No pressure plates, no obvious weaponry in the walls. I think we’re good.”

Jack picked up his pack and threw it on to the platform suspiciously, then said, “This is too easy. Okay, let’s get our stuff off the boat.” Teal’c climbed over the side. Jack and Sam passed him the gear then they helped Daniel over the side. It wasn’t easy and Daniel looked shaky when he made it on to the dock. Jack was trying not to let anyone see how much moving that gear hurt.

Jack climbed out last and looked back at the barque. “I hope the experience didn’t ruin your Egyptian boat for you, Daniel.”

“It did kind of take the shine off. I’ll get over it.” 

Sam called their attention back to the platform. “Sir, there are rings here. The usual kind.” She had also located the controls on the right side of the platform, near the back wall.

Jack frowned and nodded. “Not as sneaky as I’d like, but it’s something. Let’s go find the wizard.”

“I shall take your pack, Daniel Jackson.” Teal’c put on his own pack then threw the second one over a shoulder.

“Thanks, Teal’c.” Not having to deal with his pack meant that he could shoot if they ran into trouble. And they probably would. Daniel drew his Beretta once again.

The team gathered on the platform facing outwards, weapons ready. When they were in place, Sam activated the rings, ran to join then, and said, “If this takes us back to the same place, I’m going to be really pissed off.” The rings rushed down and drew them upwards into the unknown.


	5. A Source of Power - Chapter 5

When the rings came down, they found themselves in an elaborate room. The dark blue ceiling was covered in painted stars, and supported by enormous columns. Between the columns there were traditional murals of the Egyptian gods and a depiction of the journey of the Barque of Ra. It looked a lot like the trip they had just taken. This room was well lit, unlike the other parts of Am-Heh’s domain. They found themselves squinting as their eyes adjusted to welcome, but unaccustomed light. The flashlights were stowed in their packs.

Daniel had a look of confusion on his face, but not one that Jack saw very often. Not confused about how to communicate his reasoning. Not confused about how everyone could be so obtuse. Not even confused about what to do about some staggering conclusion he had drawn from obscure information. He looked completely at a loss. That damn near terrified Jack.

He kept an eye on Daniel. Anything that had him this mixed up was going to be trouble somewhere down the road.

An open, and empty, Goa’uld sarcophagus stood upright on a raised dais at one end of the room. Before it a statue of a seated figure in front of another offering table covered with gold plates. At the other end of the room was a door of familiar Goa’uld design.

Daniel holstered his gun. Then he turned in place, looking at the ceiling and walls, looking at the statue. He stopped, removed his glasses, and closed his eyes. He pinched the bridge of his nose. After a long moment, Daniel opened his eyes again, mumbling to himself. He looked at the statue. “Ka”. He looked up. “Nut.” He looked at a wall. “Ba.” He rubbed his eyes with his hand and began pacing.

Jack looked at Sam and Teal’c. “Okay, who broke the archeologist? Own up, or you’re both grounded.” 

Teal’c raised an eyebrow then returned to watching the Daniel Jackson, who was indeed, behaving most oddly.

“Daniel?” Sam spoke carefully. “What’s going on?”

Daniel strode to the statue and swung an arm toward it, glasses still in hand “This is a Ka statue of Am-Heh! A Ka statue!” He spoke in an impassioned and frustrated tone. “See! The head of a hunting hound!” He shoved the glasses into place on his face.

“A greyhound,” Jack said to Sam knowledgably. 

Daniel stomped over the mural and pointed at it fiercely. “This is a Ba figure! A bird - with the dog’s head! He swung his arm into the air to wave at the ceiling. “Those stars represent Nut protecting the deceased! The columns even have lotus capitals!”

Jack crossed the room to Daniel. “I can see how that’s upsetting, Daniel, but why don’t you explain it, so the kids in the back row get it, too.”

“All of these things relate to rebirth in the afterlife according to ancient Egyptian tradition. It all has to do with the survival of…the personality, the spirit, the power, of a person after death. It has nothing to do with the Goa’uld, just like that whole journey through the underworld! And yet, here it is, clearly prepared for Am-Heh! It’s just…” He threw up his functional arm in frustration, staggering slightly. 

Jack narrowed his eyes. Daniel wasn’t looking too good. With the scalding, his color wasn’t an indicator anymore, but he had dark circles under his eyes and was sweating. They’d only broken ‘camp’ a couple of hours ago. How long could Daniel keep this up? 

Jack wasn’t feeling very excellent, himself. He was hot, dizzy and was having trouble putting weight on his leg. The wound on his arm was throbbing insistently since their rowing excursion. And it was burning. Infection was probably setting in, for both of them.

“Daniel, we’ve got a more immediate problem to take care of.” Jack spoke quietly. “Neither one of us is in any condition to fight, and I think we might have to. Just a feeling.”

Daniel understood his meaning. He gave the sarcophagus a sidelong glance then looked back at Jack. “Jack, I don’t… I really don’t want to. It’s not like I’m dying...” He’d promised himself never to use a sarcophagus again, unless he had absolutely no choice. Daniel knew all too well what repeated use of the sarcophagus meant. The evil of the Goa’uld was at least partly due to its use. Shyla had gotten him addicted, but he was responsible for his actions, however induced they were. He’d let the team down and the withdrawal had been agonizing. He never wanted to risk that again. 

“You came close, Daniel. Way too close.” Jack took a deep breath. “If we keep going at this pace, if we can’t get you to surgery, you still might. You can’t tell me that you feel up to this, because I know I don’t.” He looked at Daniel intently. “Can you tell me that?”

Daniel looked down and scowled. “No. I can’t.” He ran a blistered hand across his forehead, wiping away sweat that wasn’t from any heat in the cool room. He met Jack’s eyes. “How many times, Jack? How many times can we do this and not end up like Shyla’s father, or the Goa’uld?”

“I don’t know, Daniel. More, I think, but it doesn’t really matter. Not right now. Carter and Teal’c need us.” 

Jack knew exactly how Daniel felt. He’d seen Daniel fall apart in withdrawal then he’d experienced it for himself. Baal had tortured him to death and brought him back, over and over again, until he’d wanted nothing as much as he wanted to die. He hadn’t, they’d rescued him, but the withdrawal had been every bit as excruciating as what he’d seen Daniel fight through. “I don’t want to do this either. I hope we never have to do this again.”

Daniel raised an eyebrow, his lips pressed tightly together. “Excuse me if I don’t put money on that.” He closed his eyed for a moment then gave Jack an unhappy look. “Okay. I’ll go first.”

Jack nodded, silent, and followed Daniel to the sarcophagus. Since it was upright, Daniel was able to enter with a minimum of difficulty. As the lid closed, Jack saw a bleak expression in his friend’s eyes that he knew mirrored his own.

Jack returned to the other side of the room where Carter and Teal’c waited. Their faces were serious. They knew the implications of the decision and all the history behind it.

Teal’c felt great pride in his teammates. What they risked was worse than dying. It was the risk of becoming as malevolent and uncaring as the Goa’uld. A small risk, this time, but each use led them closer. 

If they had not chosen this, he would gladly have died to defend them, but he would not have taken this choice away from them, even if he could. They were free in a way that few Jaffa were free. He would have made the same choice. They would continue this battle.

Carter stared at the sarcophagus, grateful that it was healing Daniel, but equally regretful. She knew just how much Daniel hated having to use it. The doors opened and Daniel pulled himself out. The scalding on his face was healed and his hands were unblistered. Most importantly, he used both arms freely. The terrible wound in his shoulder was gone. She felt immense relief mixed with a certain measure of guilt. She didn’t think he’d have used the sarcophagus if he was here alone. 

“Too bad these things don’t clean you up at the same time.” Daniel spoke in a light tone that forbade further discussion of the matter.

Jack gave him a tight, understanding smile. “Yep, you still stink. Bet it’s nasty in there. I should have gone first.” He went to the dais, stepped up and entered the sarcophagus. As the doors shut, they shared another look, and Daniel nodded.

Jack had been right. Daniel hadn’t wanted to do it, but Jack had been right. Now that he was healed, he realized that he couldn’t have gone on much longer. He would have dragged the whole team down with him. “Sam, can you help me get this bandage off?” He shrugged off his ripped and bloody jacket and pulled his arm from the sleeve of his equally torn shirt.

As they worked on the bandage, the sarcophagus opened for a second time, and Jack emerged. He was no longer limping and was as healthy as Daniel. He joined them and removed his own bandages, which were more accessible

When they were done, Sam gathered the blood soaked bandages and put them in a plastic bag from the med kit. No sense advertising their presence. She stashed the bag in her pack. “You guys better be nice to me. I have everything I need for voodoo.”

Daniel took his pack from Teal’c and brought the straps up over his shoulders. “Actually, while voodoo has been associated with black magic, it’s really more of a spiritual -”

“Never mind, Daniel. Let Carter dream of doing us damage with pins. Let’s go see what’s behind door number two” Jack gestured toward the very normal looking Goa’uld door.

They readied their weapons then got into position. Sam pushed the door mechanism. She waited for it to open, P-90 aimed at the opening. The team moved into the next room, fanning out, and alert to any threat. Nothing moved. 

Jack looked around the room and grimaced. “This is new. Creepy, but new.”

The floor of the large room was covered with the desiccated corpses of Jaffa. They were grouped around a fancifully tiled pool in the center of the room. Teal’c moved forward and examined one of the bodies. “The symbiotes have been removed from these Jaffa.” 

Daniel was shocked. “Why? Why would Am-Heh do that? Would they just remove their symbiotes if he told them to?”

Teal’c looked at the Jaffa thoughtfully. “They would, Daniel Jackson. The will of a god is law to the Jaffa. Only those who know them to be false gods would dare to disobey. But these Jaffa may have removed their symbiotes as an act of rebellion.”

“I wonder why? And what happened to the symbiotes?” Sam peered into the pool and saw a symbiote rear up out of the water. “That’s what happened!” She backed away quickly.

“Okay, we’ll be blowing that up!” Jack paused. “But not now, damn it!” He glared at the water. “We’ll have to come back when sneaky isn’t an issue.”

Teal’c regretted the need for stealth. He would have preferred to destroy the Goa’uld now. “The symbiotes would not have chosen to enter the water unless no other hosts were available to them.”

“So, no people, and probably no Jaffa.” Jack raised an eyebrow. “Why does that seem too easy?”

The rest of the team looked equally dubious.

They stepped around the bodies, and made their way to the far side of the room where another door waited. Sam opened it as she had the last. They entered a long, narrow hall, which had hieroglyphs and illustrations covering the walls. At the far end was an open arch.

Daniel immediately went to the hieroglyphs and began to read, one hand outstretched “This tells the story of Am-Heh. According to this, Am-Heh was very old when Ra began his rise to power. Millennia old. He convinced the System Lords of the time, Aker, Atem, and others, to back Ra. When Ra was successful in gaining ascendance, he rewarded Am-Heh. Uh, just a second, this next bit’s a little tricky… Okay, Am-Heh joined Ra on Earth and was promised a great reward for his service. It says Sokar and Ammit, envied him.” He glanced back at the team, peering over his glasses. “We’ll take that with a grain of salt. This is all from Am-Heh’s point of view.” Daniel turned back to the wall. “Anyway, he was promised many sacrifices but many of those were stolen from him, unjustly, by Sokar and Ammit. When Ra left the Earth and commanded him to follow, he didn’t think he’d gotten what he’d been promised, so he returned, secretly, at a later time. It doesn’t actually say how much later. I think it was a while ago… ‘The Nile grew red with blood, the people quaked with fear’, and so forth” Daniel waved a hand. 

Jack rolled his eyes. “Again, with the sacrifices. Amy, and his one track mind.”

“Am-Heh took a new host, Merire, from the priests of Ra’s Temple and Ra wasn’t too happy about the presumption. He still considered Earth to be his, rebellion or not. Ra banished him to this planet, where he already had this facility, forbidding him to leave. Ra gave him the Unas and the primitive Goa’uld. That was an insult and a death sentence. He was sent here without human servants and the primitive Goa’uld can’t maintain the Jaffa. Ra basically doomed them all. Maybe the Jaffa thought the dishonor was too much to live with.”

Teal’c inclined his head. “I believe you may be correct, Daniel Jackson. This would bring them great shame. There is no honor to be found on this planet, or in serving this Goa’uld.”

Sam looked puzzled. “Why didn’t he leave anyway? He was willing to ignore Ra to return to Earth.”

“That’s the question, isn’t it?” Daniel raised his eyebrows quizzically.

Something about this was bothering Jack. “Why didn’t Ra just kill him?”

Teal’c had an answer for this. “Ra would want him to suffer more than mere death for such a transgression. To be trapped on this planet without sacrifices or those to fear him would be a greater punishment to this Goa’uld.”

“I think you’re probably right about that, Teal’c.” Daniel looked at Jack. “Remember, Am-Heh was not exactly normal. Ra would have tailored the punishment to fit. He must have had some way of ensuring Am-Heh’s compliance.”

Jack nodded. “Let’s keep moving. Hopefully, we’ll find something more useful than insight pretty soon.”

Daniel started to object. “Jack -”

“Daniel. I know. Insight is very, very important, but we have to keep our eyes on the ball, here. Insight, good. Power source, better. We need to disable that puppy and get out of here.”

Jack led them through the arch at the far end of the room. They found themselves at a junction of three passages, all unmarked. “Carter?”

Sam scanned in each direction then indicated the right hand passage. “The readings are strongest in this direction, sir.” She led them down the passage, scanning for any changes. When they came to a second junction, she pointed to the left, and they continued. Eventually, they arrived at another door of Goa’uld design. The cryptic stone doors seemed to have been left behind in the tomb. 

Sam opened this door as she had the previous ones and a loud humming filled the air. Alarm crossed Sam’s face as she scanned the opening. “Sir, the reading here are very high, and will be higher inside. Extremely high. While there is currently no proof that non-ionizing electromagnetic radiation causes harm, especially in the short term, I think it would be prudent to get in and out as quickly as possible. Levels this high have never been produced on Earth. We want to limit exposure.”

Jack grimaced. Oh, good, radiation. “Okay, that’s what we’ll do. In and out as quickly as possible. Carter, you try to find a way to disable it without blowing it up. Daniel and I will set C-4 as a backup. Teal’c, keep an eye on this entrance, check for others, and watch our six. Get yourselves ready before we go in.”

Teal’c inclined his head in agreement.

Sam continued scanning the radiation which was such an unknown quantity.

Daniel paled at the mention of radiation then tried to curb his racing thoughts. There was no comparison between the radiation caused by a Naquadriah bomb and elecromagnetic radiation, even at high levels. No comparison. This was just like… Well, he wasn’t sure what it was just like. Whatever it was, it wasn’t the same. It wasn’t the same… He couldn’t seem to stop his hand from shaking as he reached into his pack to take out his C-4.

Jack made damn sure that Daniel didn’t see him notice the shaking hand. Most people didn’t have to face the prospect of a repeat death by previous worst case scenario. He was pretty sure that if he were Daniel, he’d already be back in the room full of dead Jaffa, and still running. He put the last of his C-4 down next to Daniel. “You set the C-4, Daniel. I’ll handle the detonator cord. Just put it in place and get out. I’ll do the rest.” Jack took the cord from his pack. “Ready?”

Daniel nodded and gathered up the explosive. He focused on the task. Go in, set the C-4, and go out. Go in, set the C-4, and go out… He ran into the room, only briefly taking in the immense device in the center of the enormous, vaulted room. The humming filled his ears as he arranged two piles of C-4, four blocks each, on one side of the device. Go in, set the C-4, and go out… He ran to the other side of the device and began to set another eight blocks. 

Sam and Jack followed on Daniel’s heels, with Teal’c right behind them. 

Jack attached the detonator cord to the first two piles and left the cord roll of cord next to the C-4. He ran around the machine to join Daniel.

Sam saw an access panel on the side of the device. She ripped it open, expecting to see crystal that she could remove, but was taken aback to see a completely unfamiliar interior. This device was not of Ancient, Goa’uld, or Asgard design. There were dozens of blocks of metal, some of which had been depressed. She had no idea how to proceed. For all she knew, pushing them might as easily raise the radiation levels as turn off the machine. Even if the levels of radiation weren’t frighteningly high, they couldn’t spend enough time here for her to figure it out without risking capture. She felt a pang of regret as their options narrowed dramatically. If only she had more time! This technology could have been invaluable.

As Teal’c entered the room, he examined the walls for additional entrances. There were none visible, but he did not take that for granted. He watched for any incursion that would jeopardize the team. The loud humming rang in his ears and he felt the unease that he had experienced in the tomb return. There was no good to be found in this place, even if Major Carter hoped to acquire technology. He would be glad when it was destroyed. No power that furthered such evil could be a desirable thing.

Jack reached Daniel, who was just finishing with the second two piles. He quickly attached the cord to these and ran it out to the first pile of cord. Jack waved Daniel toward the door. Instead, Daniel grabbed the first roll that Jack had left and they ran both lengths of cord out of the room together, followed closely by Sam and Teal’c.

As Sam caught her breath, she filled them in on her observations. “This device isn’t like anything that we’ve run across, sir. I can’t be sure that I can disable it in a reasonable period of time.”

“Can we disable the controls without blowing the whole thing up?”

“I don’t think so, sir. We can try, but there are no crystals, no circuitry, just blocks of metal that can be pushed in various patterns. Experimentation might have unknown effects.”

By ‘unknown effects’ Jack knew she meant ‘bad’. “Okay, we blow it now. The time for sneaky is over.” He took the first cord from Daniel and ran them both another few feet down the hall. “Here we go…” They turned to face the stone and braced themselves. Jack lit the cords. The concussive blast of the massive explosion shook the building, followed by a large secondary explosion. They could hear large pieces of the device striking the walls that had been so far from the machine. More debris came crashing through the open door to the room.

Jack grinned at Sam. “Sometimes, there is too much C-4, Carter! Who’da thunk it?”

Sam suppressed an answering smile. When it came to C-4, encouraging him was a really bad idea. She scanned the entrance. There was no residual radiation and none was being produced. “It’s safe.”

Daniel let out a breath that he hadn’t realized he was holding.

They reentered the power room, which had changed dramatically. Debris was scattered across the floor and the massive piece of machinery was nonexistent.

Sam looked at the space where something completely unknown had stood, something that was impossible in her frame of reference. She felt a dissonance between the scientist, who mourned the loss of knowledge, and the soldier who rejoiced in the success of her mission objective. She reached for the soldier’s joy. They did what they had to. It would take them home.

Teal’c felt a great relief. He didn’t know what in this device had disturbed him. Perhaps it was only that it belonged to the same being that had created the everlasting exhibit of death in the tombs above, but he could not rid himself of the feeling that everything in this place was tainted in some way that he did not understand.

“Carter?” Jack looked at his second in command for confirmation of what they all expected.

She scanned the room. “The electro-magnetic readings are back to what they were when we arrived on the planet, sir.” Once again she felt a pang of regret. If only she had been able to figure out the machine in time…

Jack nodded with satisfaction. “That’s good. Now we can get out of here.” He looked at the still intact lights, high above them. “Why are the lights still on, Carter? Can we count on that, or should we break out the flashlights again?” He couldn’t help but wonder what the heck they were made of to have survived the blast. No built in obsolescence there.

“They are regular Goa’uld technology, sir. They’ll be powered by crystals. There’s no reason to think they will stop working.” 

“Good news for once. I like that. Okay, first we blow up those Goa’uld, and then we find a way out of here. Once we get to the surface, we can try the radios. We’re too far underground right now, but Hammond will be trying to reach us. Then we’ll head for the Stargate. Let’s go.” Jack waved them out of the room.

They jogged back the way they had come and found themselves back at the room containing the pool in good time. They had a new sense of urgency now that any remaining in the structure were sure to have been alerted to their presence by the massive explosion of the power device. 

“Hold it!” Jack brought them to a halt at the entrance to the room. He pulled off his pack and took a grenade from one of the side pockets. He pulled the pin and hurled it into the pool. As the grenade exploded, water rushed into the air like the expanding event horizon of an incoming wormhole. The dead Jaffa were now covered with water and dismembered symbiotes. 

Teal’c surveyed the scene with satisfaction. Each dead symbiote was another Goa’uld who would not take a host, who would not pose as a god, who would not enslave a populace. He smiled and crushed the corpse of an almost whole Goa’uld under his foot.

“That should take care of that. Let’s get out of here.” Jack led the way as they hurried back through the hieroglyph room to the junction of corridors that had taken them to the power source. He was feeling pretty darn pleased at the moment. They still had a long way to go, though, and he was worried about Carter and Daniel. They had been looking downright depressed since the team had left the power room. Carter probably hated blowing that thing up and Daniel… Well, he just got reminded of a whole lot of things that no one should have to remember, although that was better than the alternative, which was not being able to remember anything at all. He’d have to distract them a little.

Carter scanned the left and center passages. They already knew that the right would take them back to the room that had contained the electro-magnetic device. She grimaced. “Nothing, sir, but that doesn’t mean much. I wouldn’t pick up rings unless they were in use.”

“Okay, let’s go right. I feel lucky. Don’t you folks feel lucky?”

The silence was absolute. 

Daniel sighed and made a shooing motion. “Jack, go. Lead. Precede us. Blaze a trail…” 

Jack gave him a mocking salute and they went right, down the corridor. “You must be feeling lucky, Teal’c. We blew up symbiotes! I know how much you love that!”

“It was most enjoyable, O’Neill. Perhaps we will be able to do it again soon.” There was a slight smile on the Jaffa’s face.

“I’m generally game for blowing up symbiotes, but maybe not today. I hope that was all of them.”

Teal’c raised an eyebrow. “Indeed.” 

Jack glanced at Carter and Daniel. Distraction wasn’t working. “Carter, I doubt that was the only electro-magnetic power source in the galaxy. They wouldn’t just build the one on the worst planet ever. We’ll ask around. See what the neighbors have to say. Now that we know it’s possible, we know what to look for. We’ll just have to find a way to shield the equipment next time.”

Sam pulled herself out of her reverie. The colonel was right, of course. They wouldn’t build just one, especially here. “I guess that’s true, sir.” She smiled. “I’ll start working on a way to boost the power of the electronic equipment and shield it from interference. That could provide useful results even if we don’t find another electro-magnetic generator.”

“Oh, you’ll find one, Carter. You’ll find one.” 

The corridor ended in a large room with an arched ceiling. In the center of the room were numerous pedestals displaying brightly painted, ancient Egyptian statuary. 

Daniel moved to each of them, almost touching them with reverent fingers, but holding back so as not to mar them with dirt and burn ointment. “These are incredible. Thousands of years old, but amazingly preserved… They’re perfect.”

Jack smiled. Distraction achieved. “Guess you found your artifacts after all, just not the ones you were expecting. Once we get out of here, we’ll be sending teams back to seal off this underworld. You might as well bring an archeological team.”

Daniel smiled at the thought and tore himself away from the statues. They could be discovered at any time, and he really, really didn’t want to get into a firefight in this room. As they moved into the passage on the far side of the room, he took one look back at the most beautiful Egyptian artifacts he had ever seen. “Teal’c, I thought you said that the Goa’uld don’t collect statues?”

“They do not collect small statues of themselves, Daniel Jackson. Those must be large and impressive. They do collect items of beauty from the worlds they plunder, especially those of great worth. The items in the last room were of great beauty and most unique.”

They went through no more rooms. The corridor intersected no passages. It continued on a broad curve until, finally, it widened into a large storage area. Amidst the dusty crates filling the room, they found what they were looking for. Finally, they had found transport rings. 

“Carter? Anything less than normal about these?” Jack eyed the rings suspiciously.

“No, sir, they’re perfectly normal.”

“Daniel, any puzzles or traps?”

“Nothing, Jack.”

“Teal’c? Anything?”

“I see nothing amiss, O’Neill.”

“Okay, this is creeping me out. It’s way too easy. We go through absolute, literal hell getting here, then just stroll in, blow stuff up all over the place, and nothing happens? I don’t think so.”

“The Jaffa are dead, O’Neill. Perhaps Am-Heh is also.”

“Teal’c, call me crazy, but I don’t think those Unas spent a few hundred years on pylons eating three squares of raw Goa’uld everyday. They were pretty healthy.”

Daniel frowned. “Jack’s right. Chaka ate the Goa’uld he caught, but he was after larger game. Uh, that’s why he captured me. They have a more varied diet than the primitive Goa’uld.”

Sam looked at the Colonel. “What do you want us to do, sir?”

“We have to get back up to ground level, so we have to use these rings, hinky or not. Be prepared for anything. Let’s go.”

They found themselves in yet another hall, but this one was two stories tall and was bisected by a walkway above their heads. As they entered the room, slabs of stone rose from the floor and blocked the exits at both ends of the room, leaving them trapped.

Daniel looked at the blocked exits and the walkway. “Oh, this is bad…”

As Daniel spoke, a figure stepped out on to the walkway. He was, to all appearances, an Egyptian man of middle age. He was dark haired, dark eyed and bore a slight resemblance to Skarra, for all that he was taller and more broadly built. His expression was one of rage and disgust. “You have defiled the works of your God, who lives in me. I am Am-Heh and I am his obedient Lo’taur, Merire! And yet, you shall be the source of his eternal life and redeem yourselves in death.”

“And that’s about enough of that.” Jack raised his P-90 and sent a burst of shells toward Am-Heh. They bounced off an invisible energy barrier that surrounded the walkway, hitting with a burst of blue light then ricocheting back into the lower area. They all ducked instinctively, but it was only luck that kept them from being hit by the returning bullets. “Damn. That worked well.”

Daniel was staring at the man, the host of Am-Heh, in astonishment. “Jack, you know, when I said this was bad? It’s much more than just bad…”

“Am-Heh is the thresher of gods, who is behind the house of Ra, born from the wish of the Gods, at the prow of the barge of Ra. Am-Heh sits before him! Am-Heh is a god older than the eldest! Thousands serve him! Hundreds make offerings for him!”

Jack looked up at the figure. “Y’know, you have a little spittle, right there.” He gestured to the corner of his mouth. “It makes you look kind of nuts.”

Daniel turned away from the ranting figure and looked at the team intently. “The host is the one doing this! Merire is in control. We’re not dealing with a Goa’uld, not right now, anyway. We’re dealing with an Egyptian priest with the memories and abilities of a Goa’uld. And the same world view, if that journey in the barque means anything.”

“How is that possible, Daniel?” Carter was truly shocked.

“The Tok’ra can do it. It makes sense that the Goa’uld can too, if they want. However unlikely it seems, that’s what this is!”

“Daniel Jackson, I do not believe that a Goa’uld would share control with a host.” Teal’c stared at the figure who called himself both Am-Heh and his Lo’taur.

The host continued, almost frantically. “A god who lives on his fathers, who feeds on his mothers! Am-Heh is the bull of heaven who rages in his heart, who lives on the being of every god, who eats their entrails when they come, their bodies full of magic from the Isle of Flame! You will all die!” 

“Listen to him!” Daniel threw his arm up, gesturing toward Merire. “He identifies himself as Am-Heh’s servant, as well as Am-Heh. He’s reciting the utterances, which weren’t written until after Ra left Earth. He’s speaking as an ancient Egyptian Priest, not as a Goa’uld. It explains all the afterlife imagery. Well, not the reasons behind it, exactly, but why he would think to use it. He still believes in his religion, or some warped amalgamation of Goa’uld history and Egyptian religion.”

The priest brought up his arms and two Unas appeared on the walkway. The same Unas that had been killed on the pylons. 

Daniel looked at Jack with a bitter expression. “Sarcophagus.” 

The man left the walkway followed by one of the Unas as the other lifted a shock grenade and tossed it below, before following them from the room.

Jack reached for the grenade, knowing it wouldn’t help, but trying anyway. He didn’t get a chance to throw it anywhere. It went off, blinding light filling the room, screaming sound rendering them incapable of movement. In his last moment of consciousness, Jack saw his team falling to the ground, and there was nothing he could do to stop it. The last thing he felt was failure.


	6. A Source of Power - Chapter 6

Jack was first aware of the pounding in his head. Then he felt a cold stone floor pressing into his face. He tried to pull his hands under him to push himself up. That was when he realized that he couldn’t get them apart. Jack forced his eyes open. His hands were bound with a thick rope that was tied to a large metal ring in the floor. The rope was barely long enough to allow him to pull himself into a kneeling position. It seemed very secure, but Jack threw his weight against it, just the same. No luck. Unas weren’t pretty, but they were competent.

Jack assessed the condition of his team. Daniel was tied to a ring to his right and was moving; he tried to bring his hands to his head, only to find them bound. Carter was waking up. She was tied to a ring to his left, and was about as with it as Daniel. Almost, but not quite conscious. Teal’c was already kneeling and testing his rope, on the other side of Carter. 

Jack looked away from his team and checked out their location. There were plenty of exits, two behind them leading into what looked like more passages, and two behind a raised dais in front of them. On the dais was an opulent gilt throne. More gilt covered the walls and columns. The Goa’uld sure liked their tacky gold decorating schemes. There was no sign of the Unas or Amy’s host.

Daniel groaned as he pulled himself to his knees. They took his glasses. Why did they take his glasses? Just petty cruelty, probably. It’s not like it really mattered if he could see when they tried to kill him. Or maybe they thought he would break the lenses and use the glass to cut the rope. Actually, they had a point, there. He might have tried that. 

Daniel looked around him, nearsightedly. He could see Jack, but without much definition. It was hard to read his expression. Sam was pretty fuzzy, but still recognizable as Sam. Teal’c was more of a blurry Teal’c shape. It wasn’t like he was blind without his glasses, things were just irritatingly indistinct, and headaches were guaranteed. Of course, the headache from the stun grenade was using all those pain receptors, so that was a moot point. He could make out something about twenty feet ahead of them. A throne of some kind? It was just within his I-can-sort-of-see-that range. Reading from any distance would be a big problem. Okay, impossible. He hoped he wouldn’t miss something important. “Everybody okay?”

“As much as can be expected.” Sam got her feet under her in a low crouch as she took in her surroundings. They were all awake, which meant they were all okay for now. She looked for their packs and weapons, but didn’t see them in the room. Not that they could have gotten to them anyway, unless they were ridiculously close. Too bad Am-Heh, or Merire, wasn’t stupid as well as crazy. Then again, he had the Goa’uld Unas. They wouldn’t have let that happen, no matter how much she might wish it. 

Teal’c was relieved that the rest of the team were unharmed, but the situation was dire. They were helpless in the hands of their enemy. “I am well, Daniel Jackson.” At least Daniel Jackson and O’Neill were no longer injured. He could not predict what might occur next. This situation was unheard of, even unthinkable. He had no idea what it would mean. The idea that a Tauri, and not a Goa’uld, created the trial they endured was perplexing. It was disturbing to think that a host would feel such loyalty to his captor as to torment his own kind in this manner. 

“I’m fine too, Daniel.” Jack looked at Daniel. No glasses. He wasn’t quite sure how much Daniel could see without them these days, but he didn’t think Daniel wore them just for fun, even after the whole ascension thing. It didn’t seem to hinder him much when he had to do without, but that might be a matter of reckless determination. If Daniel thought he had no choice but to jump off a cliff, he would do it, whether he could see the bottom, or not. Might even be easier without the glasses. “You okay? And do you have any more ideas about this host, and what’s going on here?”

“I’m good. Well, not good, exactly, but I’m in one piece.” He blinked and tried to make his eyes focus. It didn’t work. “I do have an idea, but you won’t like it.” Daniel spread his hands as much as the rope would allow and moved them toward Jack. 

Jack watched Daniel trying to gesture with tied hands. Could the man speak without moving his hands? It would have been kind of funny, if the situation wasn’t so bad and he wasn’t so damn mad at himself for leading them into this.

“Merire has an elaborate burial chamber made specifically for Am-Heh, complete with sarcophagus. He had us reenact the journey of the gods on Ra’s barque, taking the place of the gods who made the journey.” 

Daniel paused and looked at the team. “And he was reciting a very specific utterance to us when he said we would all die. ‘Am-Heh is the bull of heaven who rages in his heart, who lives on the being of every god, who eats their entrails when they come, their bodies full of magic from the Isle of Flame.’ That’s not a good sign. In ancient Egypt, the chanting of this utterance was supposed to make the pharaoh as strong as the gods as he passes through the underworld, and ensure his eternal life. Merire might be interpreting it a bit differently…” Daniel frowned at the rope that tied his hands “Uh, that particular one is often called the cannibal utterance.”

Jack squeezed his eyes shut. “Daniel, tell me you aren’t saying what I’m hearing you saying.”

“Sorry, Jack. I think he’s going to eat us and I don’t know if he plans on killing us first. There’s not exactly a precedent for this.”

Jack brought his bound hands up to his face and smacked them against his forehead. “Gah!”

“Sir, what difference does it make? We have to get away before… he does whatever he plans, no matter what that is...” Her voice drifted off as too many possibilities occurred to her. Sam shook herself, literally. She had to stay grounded and not let her imagination run away with her. It was important to think about getting away, not cannibalism. Definitely not cannibalism. She shifted into the kneeling position that the others had adopted.

“It just makes a difference, all right? I mean, c’mon, Carter! Especially that entrails thing.”

“Sir!”

“O’Neill, I do not believe this speculation to be productive.” Teal’c gave him a quelling stare.

Jack sighed. “Fine. Sorry. Daniel, what’s the deal with all this afterlife stuff? He’s got a sarcophagus.”

“That part’s… Uh…, I don’t know. Maybe it has something to do with Am-Heh not seeming to be around. I’m just guessing. I really have no idea.”

They were interrupted as Merire entered the room, followed by the two huge Goa’uld Unas carrying staff weapons. Jack noticed that they still wore their personal shields. That would make things more difficult. 

The host settled himself on the throne and smiled at them happily. “You have done well. You have brought Ra safely through the night. No others have completed this journey. You are truly of the Gods and full of great magic. You will have the honor of restoring the God, Am-Heh, to eternal life, as Osiris was restored by Isis.”

Jack started to reply, but Daniel cut him off with a sharp glance. 

Daniel bowed his head to the host. “We are deeply honored. May we know what afflicts the god?”

Merire shook his head sadly. “He was old before the existence of our kind. He was old before the existence of Ra, and speaks to me no longer. My life is spent within the sarcophagus to maintain him. I did not know what to do to serve Am-Heh when he ceased to act through me. He gave me no instructions.” 

His eyes took on a fanatical intensity. “Then I realized that he must be reborn as Osiris was reborn, and that I had the knowledge to do this. I have lost count of the years I have waited to restore him. Finally, the journey of the barque has been completed. You have succeeded and proven yourselves worthy. Your flesh shall sustain him on his journey through the underworld and into renewed life. He will be greater than the other gods. Your power will become the power of Am-Heh.” 

Daniel raised his hands. “We would like to make this sacrifice with honor. May we be untied?”

Teal’c raised an eyebrow. He greatly appreciated the skills of Daniel Jackson.

Again, Merire shook his head. “I am sorry, but the rituals must be observed. You must be bound when your throats are cut and your bodies drained of blood.” He gave Daniel a friendly smile. “Do not fear. You will be honored by all when I consume your flesh for the good of the God.” 

Jack raised his hands, ignoring Daniel’s frown and the shake of his head. “Excuse me. Who are the ‘all’ who will be honoring us? I just see you and two Unas. Are there others here?”

Merire's kohl lined eyes grew wide. “You saw them when you passed through the great pyramid. They are the multitude brought here by Am-Heh. They are preserved for all eternity, worshiping him forever; the inhabitants of this underworld. The Ka of each is preserved and the Ba roams the domain of Am-Heh.” 

Sam’s eyes opened wide. “Oh, wow.” She was starting to wonder Merire had been driven insane by contact with Am-Heh, or had been heading that way all on his own.

His frowned deepened as his mood shifted. He glared at them, hatred in his eyes. “But you destroyed the energy that preserves them. You have destroyed them all!” Suddenly he was as enraged as he had been when he had first captured them. “You will die for what you have done. Your power will be taken from you to feed Am-Heh. You must die quickly while those of the underworld may still enjoy their revenge and the rebirth of our God.” Merire motioned to the Unas.

Jack raised his eyebrows. “And it’s back to bat poop crazy.” He turned to Daniel. “Not so surprising what with him sharing his head with a nut job and living in a sarcophagus.”

Daniel raised an eyebrow in return. Things had been going pretty well until Jack decided he had to talk. Still, they found out why Am-Heh had all the bodies. No… Why Merire thought Am-Heh had all the bodies. They probably weren’t the same thing. And they found out that Merire planned a ritual slaughter. That wouldn’t happen in a throne room. It might give them a chance to escape.

The Unas activated their weapons.

Daniel reassessed his ideas about the ritual slaughter and throne rooms. This didn’t seem promising at all.

The Unas moved into place on either side of the team. One aimed at Daniel, the other at Teal’c.

The ropes were too short to leave any room to maneuver or attack. Teal’c glared at the Unas nearest to him, despising the cowardice of his actions. Sam looked to the Colonel, hoping to see a last minute plan that he didn’t have. Daniel gave Jack a look that was one of regret that they would die this way, and a goodbye. Jack looked at each, cursing himself for letting them down. 

The weapons were abruptly lowered as the Unas fired, freeing them from the metal rings with blasts that were far too close for comfort, but leaving their hands tied. They fired again at the ropes holding Sam and Jack.

“Sadistic bastards!” Jack leapt up and found a staff weapon aimed directly at him. He gritted his teeth and moved back into line with his team. They had all jumped to their feet and were being help in place by the weapons of the Unas.

One of the Goa’uld Unas smiled, baring sharp teeth, and motioned them to the passage on the right hand side of the dais. They moved forward in single file, hearts racing with anticipated death, eyes searching for an opportunity to fight back, or escape. The Unas followed, weapons trained on their backs. 

They headed into the corridor and Daniel saw a fuzzy indication of hieroglyphs on the walls. He wished once again for his glasses. Knowing what they said might have been helpful. He kept thinking, trying to anticipate what would come next, and where they might be going. Merire seemed to have combined elements of the ritual sacrifice of cattle and the execution of captured prisoners to create his cannibalism ritual. Was there something he might be able to use in that, some factor that would give them an advantage? He couldn’t think of anything, but he kept trying.

As they passed the dais, Jack eyed the host, calculated the odds of getting to him and using him as a hostage. He was forced to abandon the idea. Merire was just too far away. If the Unas didn’t pick him off on the platform before he got to the host, they would certainly be able to kill everyone else. An escape plan that only he survived was worse than none.

Sam kept her eyes open for anything she might use as a weapon, anything that might give them a fighting chance, but right now, there was nothing. She felt a twinge of doubt then rejected it. They’d escaped worse situations than this, with much more impossible odds. There were only two Goa’uld Unas and an incapacitated host to fight. That was nothing. She was letting the thought of cannibalism unnerve her. She really wished the Colonel hadn’t been quite so graphic.

Teal’c was the last in their line, the one who was closest to the Goa’uld Unas. He knew that if the opportunity came, he would be the one to strike the first blow against their captors. He held himself ready, his eyes on his teammates, and alert to any sign that the time was right.

The Unas herded them through a doorway at the end of the corridor. They were back in the ring room where they had been trapped. The door they had just passed through had been the nearest exit to be blocked by a stone slab.

Jack saw their packs open and in a pile on the other side of the room. Their weapons and a few items from the packs were scattered nearby; the med kit, a GDO… He saw Daniel’s glasses tossed carelessly on the pile. That was good. Daniel could shoot much better when he could see. The statue of Ra had been removed and was leaning against the wall, a few feet away. Then he saw what was piled next to the statue. Daniel’s ‘very sharp knives’. The knives that could get through a personal shield.

Sam knew this was where they would make their stand. She saw the weapons and the ring platform and knew they would have no better chance. She wondered if Daniel could see where they were and was anticipating this, or if he would be taken by surprise. No, the Colonel would find a way to warn him.

Teal’c saw O’Neill glance at the packs. He knew this was the moment he had been anticipating. He kept his eye on O’Neill and waited.

Jack stumbled and let Daniel bump into him. He spoke quietly. “This is it, Daniel. The packs are about thirty feet to your right. Your glasses are near the top. The weapons are a couple of feet behind them”

Daniel nodded and got ready to run to the packs. He’d seen the blurry mound of khaki, and thought that might be the case, but he would never have found his glasses without some idea of where to look. 

When Teal’c saw O’Neill stumble, he launched himself backward into the Goa’uld on his right. He wrestled for control of the staff weapon, hindered by the rope around his hands, as the second Goa’uld Unas prepared to fire. 

Jack struggled to grab one of the knives and ran to join Teal’c. He knew there was only one chance. If he missed, Teal’c was dead. He drove it into the spine of the Unas, just below the skull. His blow was awkward, but had all his strength behind it. The Unas dropped its weapon and screamed, collapsing to the ground as it died, along with the Goa’uld inside. 

The Unas wrestling with Teal’c was firing the staff weapon as they struggled for control. Random blasts shot through the room unpredictably. Daniel ducked low and ran for the packs. He had no idea which way the weapon might be pointing. He felt a flash of heat and smelled burnt cloth as he ran, but couldn’t dodge since he didn’t know which direction might be better. He just kept moving toward the packs.

Sam ran for the knives. She picked up a knife handle between her fingers and ran toward Teal’c, dodging the staff blasts as she went. She had to get the weapon to him. He was still unarmed and wouldn’t be able to fight the shielded Unas without a knife, even if he managed to get the staff weapon away from it. 

Daniel could hear staff blasts firing across the room. He didn’t know where they were going, but he didn’t smell his clothes burning, so he guessed it wasn’t near him. Daniel leaned closer in, to the distance where he could do without glasses. He let his hands help him look, bound though they were. No glasses. Then he found them, just to the right of where he had been looking. Daniel grabbed the glasses and shoved them on his face just in time to duck, as a blast from the staff weapon went over his head. Seeing was good.

Jack tried to get behind the Unas and kill it as he had the first, but it was moving too much. The knife might go right past its neck and hit Teal’c, especially since it was so hard to maneuver with his hands tied. He settled for hitting it in the shoulder. Maybe Teal’c could get that staff weapon away from it with the distraction.

Daniel looked toward the fighting and saw Jack driving a knife into the shoulder of one of the Unas, just as Sam arrived. It was pretty crowded around the Unas with Teal’c, Sam, and Jack surrounding it. Daniel didn’t think there was enough room for him to do much good. He slid over to the knives and picked one up by the blade, inching it down to rope around his wrists. He began sawing through it carefully. “Ow! Still sharp.” Daniel kept cutting with the small movements his fingers would allow until he was free. He went back to the packs in a crouch, holstered his Beretta, and started throwing things into the packs haphazardly.

The Unas dropped the weapon, but after that, things didn’t go quite as Jack planned. It backhanded Teal’c twice, once knocking him off balance, the second time into a wall. Jack heard the crack as Teal’c’s skull hit. The Unas turned from Teal’c to face him. As it wrapped both clawed hands around his neck, Jack tried to go for the stomach, but the knife was at the wrong angle and he couldn’t adjust it with his hands tied. He was more likely to disembowel himself than hit the Unas and that wasn’t part of the plan. He gasped for air as it tightened its hands around his neck, smiling with sharp teeth.

“Teal’c!” Sam saw him hit the wall. He pushed himself off the floor and up. She held the knife to his wrists and cut the rope as quickly as she could, then handed him the knife. This was taking to long. She needed to get another knife and help the Colonel.

Teal’c cut the ropes that held her then ran to strike the Unas. He saw Major Carter go back to the knives. Her hands were now free to fight. He was aimed for the spine, to kill the symbiote as O’Neill had, but the Unas moved closer to O’Neill just as his blow fell. The blade dug into its back, close to the spine, but not close enough, or high enough. 

Sam got back to the Colonel and Teal’c in time to see the blade go into its back. The Unas shrieked and let go of the Colonel, who was holding his throat and gasping for air. It swung toward them in a rage. She couldn’t reach the spine anymore, so she drove the knife into its chest then ripped it free.

The Unas gave a bellow of pain, and finding itself outnumbered and gravely wounded, roared and tore itself away from them. It drove them back with slashes of its claws, and ran from the room, dragging the dead Unas behind it.

Teal’c cut O’Neill’s bonds then retrieved his own staff weapon from the pile by the packs. He did not trust the weapons of the Unas. He also collected the knives. They had proved useful weapons, if inefficient.

Sam and Jack both grabbed their P-90’s and clipped them to their vests. They check their ammunition and added extra clips to their pockets.

Daniel was fastening the last pack when he heard a sound from the walkway and looked up. “Guys? Something’s coming.” Then he heard a grinding sound from the direction of the door and saw the stone slab that had trapped them earlier rise from the floor. It was matched by the one at the other exit. “This could be going better.” 

Daniel pulled the packs onto the ring platform. He didn’t need to ask. It was the only way out: down, back the way they came, away from the Stargate. He drew his weapon.

A large number of Unas poured onto the walkway and aimed into the room below. They were followed by Merire, who was laughing and talking to himself “Kill them now. Kill them! Their throats may be cut and their bodies drained of blood as easily after death as before, if not as well.”

“Damn it, where’d they come from? Let’s go! We’re fish in a barrel down here.” Jack sprayed fire from his P-90 across the walkway. The shield was still in place. Blasts began to strike all around them. Jack saw one narrowly miss the ring control panel, and Carter, who had moved to the controls. Another went so close to his head that it left the smell of burnt hair behind it.

They ran for the platform. Daniel had to get there in a dive to avoid the fire when two Unas targeted him at the same time. Jack and Teal’c reached the platform without being hit, but as they moved to the center, one of the blasts came too close and Teal’c staggered. Sam joined them and they returned to the place from which they had worked so hard to escape.

As the rings receded, Teal’c fell to his knees. He shifted his weapon to his left hand and used it to climb to his feet. 

“Teal’c! You’re hit.” Sam winced as she saw the charred flesh on his upper right arm. Even with the healing of his symbiote, that was not a trivial wound.

“I will heal, Major Carter, as I always do.”

Sam didn’t doubt that, but she could hear the pain in his voice. Teal'c didn't have the rapid healing provided by a symbiote anymore. There was nothing she could do for him, with her limited medical skills and supplies. A burn wound like that would do better left open to the air than covered.

“Get your gear, folks, they’ll be right behind us. There probably aren’t any other rings, so be can’t blow these.” Jack figured that if there was another way out, Merire and the Unas wouldn’t have been waiting for them up top. Merire had known just where to trap them and that they’d come to him. There had been no need to come after them on the lower level. Of course, they hadn’t anticipated the destruction of their power source.

Jack grabbed his pack and glanced at Teal’c. The blast wound would have incapacitated any of the rest of them, but Teal’c seemed to be holding his own. He’d have to, for the time being.

Daniel pulled on his pack and threw Teal’c’s over his shoulder. He gave the Jaffa a nod and a worried smile, moving away from the platform. He wasn’t going to give Teal’c a chance to argue with him about this.

They ran out of the storage room and down the corridor. When they reached the Egyptian artifact room, Jack stopped and looked back at the door they had come through. He grimaced and rubbed his face with one hand. He looked at Daniel, his hand still obscuring his mouth and regret in his eyes. “Daniel.”

A look of horror crossed Daniel’s face, the expression quickly replaced by anger and determination. “No! Not here! Why here, Jack?”

Jack gritted his teeth. They didn’t have time for this. “Daniel, we can’t risk damaging the rings. If we set a trap in the hall, they’ll be too spread out, and the ceiling might collapse, trapping us down here. And if we let them get past this room, they’ll reach the corridor junction and spread out through the level. This is our one shot to take them all out at once.” Daniel was still wearing his ‘line in the sand’ expression. Damn it.

Daniel was shaking his head. “No. We can’t do that.”

Teal’c was frowning as he looked around the room. He did not wish to destroy these things, these works of the Tauri who had driven Ra from their world. He did not wish to bring Daniel Jackson the pain that their destruction would cause. If O’Neill believed it to be necessary, he would do so, but with great regret.

Sam looked at the unimaginable treasure of history that surrounded them, and at the two men arguing. If the Colonel thought this was their best chance of survival, they would be at an impasse. Neither man would back down. And they were running out of time.

Jack was losing his temper. “Daniel, that’s the best idea I have. If we don’t do something, they’ll catch up with us while we’re talking, and we’ll be stuck here with no cover except your statues. I don’t come up with these things just to piss you off, you know!” He took a step toward Daniel. “If you don’t like it, give me an alternative, otherwise, we have to go ahead.”

Daniel scowled and stared into space for a moment. Then his eyebrows rose and he turned back to Jack. “The sarcophagus! Merire pretty much lives in it. He has to be incredibly addicted. He won’t be able to go much longer without using it and, with us on the loose down here, he’ll take most of his Unas with him. We can set the trap in the room with the dead Jaffa. It might not take out as many as a trap here would, but-”

Jack slapped him on the shoulder. “But it’s good enough. Let’s go.” 

As they ran from the room and into the next passage, Jack felt a sense of relief that was greater than he would ever admit, even to himself. He and Daniel had forgiven each other for lots of things over the years, but blowing up that room would have crossed a whole new line. Daniel would never have gotten over that. And Jack would have done it, no question.

They turned down the corridor leading to the room that was now filled with dead symbiotes, as well as dead Jaffa, at a full run. They had lost time in the artifact room, and they all knew that the Unas, and Merire, would not be far behind. They had to work quickly, or they would end up in a fire fight, badly outnumbered, and without the advantages that strategy might bring. 

Teal’c was keeping up with them. He would have allowed himself to do no less, but every member of the team knew how much pain was caused by a staff weapon wound, and urged him on, silently.

They reached their goal and Jack threw off his pack to get the remote detonators that would finally work. “Daniel, get Teal’c’s C-4 out of his pack.” Teal’c was carrying as much as he and Daniel had been. Theirs had been used in the first passage, and in the room with the electro-magnetic power source. “Carter, how much are you carrying?” She carried less on missions like this to make room for the extra medical supplies.

“Six, sir.” She took off her pack and retrieved the C-4.

That made eighteen bricks, altogether. “Space them out across the room. Three piles of six, spaced out on the path to the sarcophagus.” Jack hoped that wasn’t too much. He wanted large enough explosions to take out the whole group, but not to bring down the ceiling. Luckily the room was large enough, and high enough, that he didn’t think that would be a problem. He hoped that wouldn’t be a problem. He took three detonators from his pack and started attaching them to the C-4 that Carter and Daniel had placed. 

Teal’c stood watch over the entrance to the room, his face stiff with pain, as he guarded against the pursuers that were sure to be on their way.

“This must be a record.” Sam looked at the piles of C-4. “I don’t think we’ve ever used this much C-4 on one mission before.”

Jack attached the last detonator, moved the C-4 under the corpse of a Jaffa, and stood. “A record for SG-1. Usually, we’re blowing up things like Hataks that just need a little nudge in the right direction. My personal record is a little higher… Let’s get into the sarcophagus room and take cover.”

They moved into Am-Heh’s burial room and took cover behind the huge columns, Daniel and Sam behind one, and Jack and Teal’c behind another. Closing the door would have been safer, but wouldn’t have allowed them to see when to detonate the C-4, or how many, if any, of their pursuers might escape the blasts.

Jack looked around the column into the room rigged with explosives. “No sign of pursuit. They should have caught up with us by now.”

Daniel frowned. “I was sure that Merire would be desperate to get to the sarcophagus.”

“This is a good plan, Daniel. It should work, unless Am-Heh has another sarcophagus stashed away, and that’s not likely. They always seem to have just one of the damned things. All we can do is wait. And hope there aren’t any surprises.”


	7. A Source of Power - Chapter 7

Teal’c leaned against the column that he and O’Neill had hidden behind, waiting for the approach of their enemies. He focused on the explosives laid strategically across the next room, ignoring the pain of the burn covering a large part of his arm. He focused on his need to stay alert, on his desire to protect his friends, on his wish to destroy Am-Heh and the infested Unas. He would not be distracted. He would not weaken. He breathed deeply and pushed the pain to the back of his mind.

Jack shifted his gaze from the trap they had set to Teal’c. He couldn’t tell how the big guy was doing. To the Jaffa, severe injury meant an end to usefulness, and an end to life. It had to be hidden. Teal’c knew the team didn’t see it that way, but old habits die hard. Jack had no idea how he might be feeling right now. When Carter or Daniel was wounded, he had a pretty good idea how they were feeling, even when they felt obliged to minimize their condition. They would never hide an injury that endangered the team, but if nothing could be done about it, they would forge ahead, and try to keep anyone from worrying about them. But he didn’t get the birds on his shoulders for being a pretty face. He could read his people.

Sam looked behind her to the Colonel and Teal’c then back to Daniel. They all knew the Unas and Merire should have caught up with them by now. Her mind went back to a question there hadn’t been time to ask. “Daniel, I’ve been wondering something about Am-Heh. The Unas were the first hosts of the Goa’uld. We’ve seen a couple of them. Wouldn’t they be as old as Am-Heh? Maybe older?”

Daniel looked at her over his glasses. “Not necessarily. It might just mean that they didn’t want to use human hosts. The Unas are stronger and have better regenerative abilities. Some Goa’uld may prefer that, although most of them seem to find us, uh, prettier. Which is disturbing in all kinds of ways.” 

“We’ve never heard of a Goa’uld in Am-Heh’s condition. That might mean that he is older than any of the other Goa’uld, or it might be something specific to Am-Heh. Some kind of genetic defect that even the sarcophagus can’t fix. I don’t think we’ll ever know, Sam.”

Daniel frowned as he looked into the room with the dead Jaffa and the explosives. He was getting really worried that Merire hadn’t shown up. He’d convinced Jack that this was a good plan. He couldn’t let Jack blow up those artifacts, he just… couldn’t, but he wouldn’t have suggested this as an alternative if he hadn’t been sure that it would work. Daniel listened carefully, hoping to hear the sound of approaching feet.

He heard something, but it wasn’t feet. It was the faint sound of moving stone. “Jack!” He spoke in a soft voice and pointed to the opposite side of the room. For a moment, nothing happened, and then a section of wall rose, revealing a hidden passage. Unas filled the room, their eyes flaring yellow. They were all blended, all possessed by the primitive goa’uld of their homeworld. Two of the Unas were dragging the giant Unas that had been the guards. Daniel couldn’t tell if they were both dead now, or just the one that Jack had killed. It wouldn’t matter if they were put in the sarcophagus. The Unas were followed by Merire. Daniel felt a surge of desperation. The Unas would find them any minute, and he would be responsible.

Merire moved into the room and near the columns that sheltered them. Daniel knew he had to fix this. The explosives were useless as long as the Unas were in the burial room. They’d be caught without ever having the chance to detonate the C-4.

Daniel leapt out from behind the column and stood behind Merire, his arm wrapped around the host’s neck. “Stay back!” He held the Beretta to Merire’s temple and the Unas halted their advance. He pulled the host backward toward the explosives. The Unas followed him toward the other room, as he had hoped.

He heard Sam call out his name. Her comprehension of his plan and the distress in her voice were clear. He couldn’t let it distract him; he couldn’t let it be important. He focused only on what he had to do. This had to work. There was no other way. Daniel reached the doorway and kept backing into the room. He was careful not to disturb any of the explosives hidden under the bodies of the dead Jaffa. And not to trip. That would end this fast and badly.

Jack was frowning ferociously as he watched Daniel put his damn stupid plan into action. He hated it when Daniel improvised. It always ended in a damn stupid plan like this one. The Unas were all following him into the room, so that was good, but there was Daniel, in the middle of a room full of C-4. He muttered to himself. “Daniel, if you make me blow up someplace around you again, so help me, C-4 will be the least of your problems. Damn it!” 

Teal’c heard O’Neill, and while he wished that Daniel Jackson had not found it necessary to take this risk, he approved of his actions. This choice was necessary. Teal’c regretted that he had not been close enough to lead the Unas to their destruction himself. 

Sam couldn’t see Daniel, now. The room had filled with Unas and her view was blocked. There were still a few of them on this side of the doorway, but most were inside with the C-4. With Daniel. 

“Jack, now!” 

Jack heard Daniel call over the sounds of the Unas. He heard Daniel, but he couldn’t see him. Daniel could be standing on top of a pile of explosives, for all he knew.

“Jack! Now!” Daniel’s voice had taken on a frantic tone.

Jack closed his eyes then looked at Carter and Teal’c. “Fire in the hole!” Jack detonated the explosives, starting with the one closest to them, than the pile in the center of the room, and lastly, the C-4 that was probably closest to Daniel. Crap. 

As far as Daniel was concerned, this plan was the only option. Maybe it wasn’t his best one ever, but it was the only plan he had. When Daniel pulled Merire into their explosive rigged trap, the Unas had followed. That part of his plan had worked nicely, but by the time he reached the middle of the room, they started fanning out and trying to get behind him. That wasn’t helpful. Daniel pushed the gun into the temple of the host. “Tell them to drop back. Right now.”

“If you kill me, they will destroy you and restore me in the sarcophagus. You will die.”

“That would be important, if I cared.” Daniel dragged Merire back another few feet. It was a good thing the Goa’uld couldn’t read minds. Daniel cared. He cared a lot. 

“I wouldn’t be so sure they’ll restore you, either. Maybe one of them would rather rule in your place. Even if they do, Am-Heh is too weak for your body to be restored from death. Am-Heh will go into the underworld without the strength of the gods and be lost forever.” Actually, Daniel had no idea if the sarcophagus would work or not. He hoped Merire didn’t know either. “Call them off now, or you die here. Your god dies here.”

Merire hesitated then waved the Unas back.

Daniel kept pulling the host backwards, ten feet, fifteen feet, while the Unas crept closer. He had no illusions about how long the Unas could be kept at bay. Eventually, they would swarm him, and he wouldn’t have a chance. As he drew closer to the door to the hieroglyph room, he decided it was time. The Unas were moving in. He wasn’t going to be able to wait any longer. He just had to hope that most of them were in the room. “Jack, now!”

The Unas seemed to take this as a cue. They moved forward quickly, trying to surround him and cut off his escape. “Jack! Now!” Daniel saw Unas moving in from either side, and launched himself backwards toward the door, holding Merire between him and the attacking Unas. The first charge went off, the second, the third. The force of the explosions sent Daniel flying through the door and into the stone floor, chunks of stone, shards of tile, and unmentionable detritus raining around him. He let go of the host as he hit. His ears were ringing and his vision darkened. He had been way to close to that last pile of C-4.

Jack looked into the room where he had just detonated the explosives. He couldn’t see anything, just a cloud of dust, debris, and things that were less pleasant, unless you like small pieces of Unas, long dead Jaffa, and symbiote. No movement. No Daniel. 

He saw the remaining Unas powering their staff weapons. Some had been on the periphery of the explosion and had run back to the burial room. Some had never left. Jack took aim at the Unas nearest to their former guards and fired. He didn’t want to take any chances when it came to fighting those two again. He knew they had been lucky the last time. He didn’t want a repeat of the fight in the boat. 

They stayed in the cover of the stone columns. Sam was firing her P-90 at the Unas closest to her that were encroaching on their position. She was thankful these didn’t have shields. It looked like only the two who fought on the pylons had shields. Merire hadn’t even had one. Was Merire still alive? Was Daniel? The blast from a staff weapon hit the column just over her head. She took aim at the Unas that had fired. The room was filled with the deadly fire of staff weapons and P-90’s, and the sounds of battle were loud in her ears. 

Despite his damaged arm, Teal’c was fighting with a ferocity that was always most apparent when he battled the Goa’uld. The number of Unas steadily fighting was diminishing. Most had been destroyed by the C-4 in the trap to which Daniel Jackson had led them. Teal’c glanced at the dust filled room. He controlled his thoughts with great effort and turned back to the battle. He was Jaffa. He was free. He would destroy these Goa’uld that Daniel Jackson had given him the opportunity to fight. Teal’c raised his weapon and fired.

Jack looked around him. Carter and Teal’c were doing fine. No further injuries and they were down to the last four Unas. He saw a movement by the door and turned to see Amy’s host stagger into the room. His clothes were ragged, and soiled with debris from the explosion. Jack raised his P-90 to take the shot.

“Sir! Behind you!” An Unas had moved around the dais and was flanking the Colonel. Its staff weapon was raised and ready. Sam couldn’t take it out; the Colonel was in her line of fire.

Jack swung around and sent a burst of fire into the Unas. It dropped to the ground. Two others came forward and Jack took them down as well. One of their staff weapon blasts charred the paint on the column just above his head. He heard a sound from the door.

“Daniel!” Sam’s voice was filled with relief as she saw Daniel emerge from the dust filled room. He was bleeding from a cut on his head, and favoring one leg, but he was alive and in one piece.

Daniel didn’t hear Sam. He didn’t hear anything, except the ringing in his ears. He was focused on Merire. The host had reached the sarcophagus and the lid was closing. Daniel raised his Beretta from where he stood, the full length of the room between them, and fired a single shot. The lid was almost closed, but the bullet passed through the six inch gap that remained and hit Am-Heh’s host squarely between the eyes. 

Jack let out a whistle. “Nice!” 

Teal’c raised his staff weapon and blasted the controls of the sarcophagus, turning it into nothing more than a coffin. The false god was now truly dead.

The last remaining Unas had hidden itself behind a pillar across from them. It stepped out and aimed at Daniel. 

He didn’t hear it move. He didn’t hear the staff weapon charging. And he didn’t hear Jack’s warning.

“Daniel! Get down!” Jack ran forward and shot at the Unas. The shells hit just as the weapon fired. The blast went wide; it missed Daniel by inches.

Daniel hadn’t heard any of that, but he saw the fire from the staff weapon race by him. His eyebrows rose as he looked from Jack to the dead Unas with surprise, and dawning relief. He smiled. “Thanks, Jack. Good timing.” 

Sam moved to Daniel with a big grin. He gave her a broad smile in return. She tapped her ear and looked at him inquiringly. “Can you hear anything at all?”

Daniel shook his head. “I can’t hear you, Sam. It’s getting better though. The ringing isn’t as loud as it was before. I don’t think it’s permanent.”

Jack looked at his watch. “Much as I’d like to get out of here yesterday, it might take a while, and we haven’t eaten in almost eight hours. We’ll take a break, and then try the secret passage these guys used to get in here. Teal’c, do a quick check of the corridor, I’ll have a look around here. Let’s make sure that no one is playing hide and seek. Carter, go to the hieroglyph room with Daniel, he won’t be able to hear leftover Unas sneaking up on him. We’ll meet you there to eat. It’s the closest place that isn’t full of unappetizing dead Unas.” He turned to Daniel, mimed eating, pointed to the door. 

Daniel looked pleased. “I’m starving. How long has it been since we ate?”

Jack rolled his eyes and watched his team leave the room from the room. He checked the sarcophagus room for hidden followers of Merire, but the only Unas to be found were dead ones. There was little to check in the room that had held the dead Jaffa. Nothing was in a big enough pieces to be alive. By the time he got to the hieroglyph room, Teal’c had already returned, having found no Unas lurking in the corridors, either.

They settled down to eat, but kept their backs to the wall and their eyes on the doors. This place had held so many surprises, it was difficult not to expect one now, even after defeating Am-Heh. The adrenalin that had rushed through them was fading, but they were a very long way from relaxed. 

Daniel had picked up Teal’c’s pack again and helped him with his meal. Teal’c made gestures that Daniel interpreted as meaning that he was capable of dealing with his own MRE., but Daniel just smiled, shook his head, and continued. “I know you can do this Teal’c, but it’s easier not to, isn’t it? Let me return the favor. Now, Beef Enchiladas or Chicken with Thai Sauce?”

Teal’c recognized that Daniel Jackson would not be dissuaded, and pointed to the Beef Enchiladas. Daniel Jackson was not wrong. The mobility of his injured arm was not good. He had done further damage during the battle. It was difficult to accept the slow healing that came with his freedom from his symbiote, but it was a small price to pay. It was not unpleasant to allow Daniel Jackson to complete this task for him. He leaned back against the wall and let his tense muscles ease.

They ate quickly, driven by their desire to escape this place and get back to the Gate. Daniel was relieved to find that his hearing seemed to be returning more rapidly than he had expected. By the end of the meal, he could once again hear the voices of his teammates.

Sam pulled the wagered vanilla wafer and pound cake from her pack. She handed the wafer to Teal’c with a smile. “Sorry, Daniel. You lost.”

He shook his head. “No argument from me. I was completely wrong about Am-Heh. He was very much in residence. Well, his host was, and that turned out to be close enough.”

Still smiling, she passed the pound cake to the Colonel . “You found the ‘high tech do-dad’, Sir, so you win. It took a while longer than we expected, but there was no time limit in the bet. And nothing was said about the power source having to remain intact.” 

Teal’c reached into his pocket awkwardly and retrieved the chocolate energy bar. “You shall not go without extra dessert, Daniel Jackson.” He passed it to the archeologist.

“Thanks, Teal’c! Are you sure you don’t want it?”

“I am completely sure, Daniel Jackson.”

Daniel pulled the wrapper off the energy bar. He didn’t understand why Teal’c didn’t like them. As they were drinking their coffee, Jack motioned the archeologist over to him.

“Daniel, we need to talk about your improvised plan. You know I hate it when you do stuff like that.”

“Sorry, Jack.” Daniel had a stubborn expression on his face. “But, someone had to get them into that room. Waiting by the sarcophagus was my plan. I got us trapped in there, so I had to fix things. It had to be done.”

“Consequences be damned, huh, Daniel?”

“And what would the consequence be if I hadn’t? We all get captured by the Unas and die together?” Daniel crossed his arms.

“So it was better for you to risk dying alone?” Jack frowned at him, willing him to understand what it was that he asked of his friends and teammates. “Better to make me risk killing you? Not better, Daniel. Not better at all. Didn’t we already have this conversation on the way into this place?” 

Daniel’s gaze dropped away from Jack. “I was pretty sure I could do it without dying, Jack. That’s not something that’s on my list of things to do again any time soon...” Daniel focused on his sleeve and picked at something. “If there’d been time, I would have said something… tried to figure out something else. But there wasn’t, so….” Daniel looked at his other arm, and then down at his pants with a disconcerted expression. “Jack… I’m covered with… um, Unas…”

“Yes, Daniel. You are.” Jack gave him a wry smile. “Let that be a lesson to you.” 

Carter had cleaned up the blood that had been running down Daniel’s face after the explosion, but between that, the dried blood from the shoulder wound, and the remnants of Unas, Daniel looked mighty gory. They all looked like extras from a horror movie. Smelled like it, too.

Jack actually agreed with him about his improvisation with Merire. In retrospect, it was the only solution. Daniel and Carter were the ones closest to the host, so it had to be one of them that took action. 

Jack would never tell Daniel that. You just didn’t encourage Daniel to go off on his own and do something dangerous. The results were too unpredictable. That’s why he called him on it. Jack didn’t want Daniel to get the idea that he approved of that sort of thing. Even when he did. Sort of. Of course, he would have felt differently about it if Daniel had gotten himself killed. If he had killed Daniel. He gulped the last of his coffee and stood. “Let’s get out of here. It’s time to go home.” 

They pulled on their packs. This time Jack took Teal’c’s. “My turn, Daniel. I wasn’t in the middle of an explosion.” 

Teal’c began to object. “O’Neill -” 

Jack raised a finger. “Aht! Privilege of command. I get to do what I want. Your arm will heal a lot faster if you don’t do stuff that you don’t have to, and we need you healed as soon as possible.” He threw the pack over his shoulder, and led them back through the disgusting room where the Unas has died, to the room that was now, truly, the burial place of Am-Heh.

The passage that opened off the new entrance into the burial room was narrower than the other corridors on the level. They were forced to travel in single file, with Jack leading and Sam bringing up the rear, their P-90’s held at the ready. While this passage was still lit, the lights were more spread out, making it much dimmer. After the first few feet, it began to incline sharply, switching back like a path up a mountain.

Jack tried to estimate how much height they had gained. He guessed that it was about 100 feet. That didn’t mean much, since they had no idea how deep the rings had taken them under the surface. 

His legs were burning. The passage had been built for expedience, not comfort. Jack would bet that Am-Heh had never intended to use it himself. The pitch began to lessen, and the passage leveled out at a stone door set into the wall in front of them. They raised their weapons and Jack pushed the control that opened the door onto a large, but very crowded room. Carter and Daniel were drawn into it like moths to a light.

Tall shelves divided into niches lined the walls. They were filled with rolls of parchment, Goa’uld data crystals, data display devices, and books. Long tables filled the center of the room, covered with more of the materials, piled haphazardly with no sign of order. Books were stacked uncaringly wherever there was available space. Some had been knocked over and were strewn across the floor. The room was strangely free of dust for one that had clearly received so little care. There was an open arch opposite the door through which they had come. It was the only other exit to the room.

 

Daniel reached down to pick up a display device from one of the tables.

“Daniel! Bad idea!”

“Jack?” The archeologist’s eyebrows rose questioningly.

“Remember what happened last time you found one of those things?” Jack didn’t want to take even the smallest chance that Daniel, or any of them, might be infected with one of those crazy making anti-Goa’uld weapons again.

Daniel looked over the top of his glasses. “You know, I really doubt that Ma’chello has been here.”

“Just… humor me, okay? Read a book.” Jack waved his hand at the many books that were piles around them.

Daniel rolled his eyes, but moved his hand away from the data device and opened a book that sat next to it. “This is interesting...”

“Why? What’s it say?” Jack hoped it was about weapons. Big ones.

“I don’t know. That’s what’s interesting.” Daniel turned the page.

“Yes, I know that’s what I look for in my reading material.” Jack glanced at Carter and Teal’c. Neither seemed to be getting into any trouble.

Daniel picked up the book and flipped through it. “It doesn’t resemble any language or pictographic writing system that I’ve seen before. Interesting.” 

Jack raised his eyebrows. “Oh. Well. That’s just fascinating, then. But not very useful.”

“You never know, Jack. We couldn’t read Ancient at first, but it turned out to be pretty useful. This might be, too.”

Jack didn’t have an answer for that so he went to see what Carter was doing. 

Sam was reading the information from a data crystal. It was written in Goa’uld. She was relatively proficient, although she occasionally needed help from Teal’c or Daniel for the more obscure phrases.

“Interesting or useful, Carter?”

“Maybe both, sir. It seems to be a record of Am-Heh’s tribute of sacrifices from various worlds. It lists the number of people received, as well as some details about the planets. It also lists the gate addresses.” Sam pointed to an address on the screen.

“Useful! And interesting! You bring that one; we’ll send a team back for the rest of this stuff. We have to come back to get Daniel’s artifacts, anyway.”

“And to seal the underworld.” She looked down at the table and frowned.

Jack grimaced. “Yeah. We don’t want anyone else wandering in there by accident.”

“The people, sir? Am-Heh’s victims?”

“Yeah. Carter, about that -”

“I know sir. There are too many…” Sam looked back to him. “I was thinking, maybe a memorial before we seal the pyramid?”

“I think that can be arranged, Carter. And we’ll mark the building as a tomb. I’ll talk to Hammond.” That was a good idea. Jack didn’t want to be here for it, but it was a good idea.

“Thanks you, sir.” Sam put the crystal in a pocket on her vest, as well as two others that were lying nearby. It was tempting to fill her pack with as many as possible, but they needed to be catalogued according to placement in the room. It didn’t look like there was any order here, but she didn’t want to make that assumption. She’d learned that from Daniel. He kept meticulous records of where things were found and there were times when that had turned out to be important.

“You have five minutes, Carter.”

“Yes, sir.”

Daniel had moved over to the shelves where he was carefully unrolling scrolls of parchment. “We’re going to have to be very careful moving these, Jack. They should have decayed, well, millennia ago, but they’re perfectly preserved. I hope we can find out how…”

“You mean, they’ll turn to dust when we try to take them out of here?” Jack rested his arms on his P-90.

Daniel shook his head and looked at Jack. “No. They’re not just intact. They are perfectly preserved. They’re essentially new. We’ll need to move them and store them in a way that doesn’t start the degradation process. Ideally, we’ll be able to find out what’s kept them in this condition. We may find a link between this and preservation of the victims. This is an amazing find.” 

“Just think of the commercial applications. Goa’uld Botox.” Jack grinned at the archeologist, then winced a little. That didn’t come out quite the way he meant it. But they’d found some good stuff and some gate addresses, some sciencey stuff for Carter, even some artifacts and books for Daniel. Everybody was walking out of here on their own steam. Things were really starting to look up. 

Daniel ignored him and returned to examining a parchment. “Yes, because that would be so much more important than preserving ancient libraries.” 

Jack waved a hand at the shelves. “Why do you think Am-Heh kept all this? He didn’t strike me as a big reader.”

“No, I’m not getting the sense that he collected first editions.” Daniel continued reading.

“So why? What is all this stuff?” Jack reached for a parchment.

“Don’t touch that, Jack.” Daniel looked up from the scroll. “From what little I’ve looked at, the part that I understood, anyway, it’s mostly records. The most interesting parts, well, sad-interesting, are about the worlds he went to for tribute. He recorded the history of his dealings with the people of each world. We may be able to extrapolate some interesting information.” Daniel rolled the parchment up again. “There’s also some information on various items and technologies that he stole. Sam will really like some of that.”

“She found some swell crystals with gate addresses on them. Addresses from the planets where Am-Heh took people. ”

“Oh. That’s… That’s really good.” Daniel frowned at the scroll.

“Anyway, Daniel, we need to go. I gave Carter five minutes, ten minutes ago. If there is anything that you can take out of here with out wrecking it, you can have one now. The rest are for later.” Daniel looked at him with an odd expression on his face. Kind of a cross between a smile and a frown. It was… wistful. Not a word that Jack generally had reason to pull out of his vocabulary, and not an expression that he’d seen on Daniel very often. Not for a long time, and that wasn’t counting the time Daniel had been ‘glowy’.

He looked down for a moment then put the parchment back on the shelf. “Thanks, Jack. But no. I better not. Unless I can take that data recorder?”

“Absolutely not.”

“I didn’t think so.”

“Safety first, Daniel. Let’s go then.” Jack headed toward the arch.

He passed Teal’c standing at a table and saw something he didn’t usually see. Teal’c reading a Big Book ‘O Goa’uld. “Wha’cha got there, Teal’c?”

“It is a record of the Jaffa who served Am-Heh, O’Neill.”

“Ah.” Teal’c didn’t look up from the book. Jack was starting to feel ignored.

“This is a thing that my people would value. A record of those lost. Their names are recorded as yet another sacrifice to Am-Heh. It was no such thing. My people will know that they died free.” 

“Daniel says that we better not take the fragile stuff out of here yet. But I’ll do my best to make sure you get that when we do. I don’t see Hammond having a problem with that.”

Teal’c closed the book carefully and looked at O’Neill. “I would appreciate that greatly.”

“Ready to go?” He gestured to the arch in the wall.

“Indeed.”

“Okay, campers! Library’s closing, time to go home!” Jack passed through the arch.

As they left, Daniel took a last glance at the archive. In the middle of this monument to death, they had found something that might give a voice to the victims. They didn’t save any of them, but maybe they could tell their people what happened, that the Goa’uld who had taken them was dead. It was a small thing, but it was something. It was something Daniel had needed. He would have looked for Sha’re forever. He turned and left the room.

Through the arch was a smaller room. There was another ring platform on one side, and a large stone door on the other side. The door was a match of the one they had used to enter the pyramid, except that the hieroglyph were simpler and confined to a panel beside the door.

Daniel went to examine the panel.

“Sir, the rings probably go up to somewhere near Am-Heh’s throne room. We’ve climbed quite a way. I think the throne room must be in the top levels of the pyramid.”

“Which means we might be at ground level.” Daniel raised his eyes from the panel. “This looks pretty simple. I think it’s just a door, not a trap, or anything.”

“Go for it, Daniel.” Jack mentally crossed his fingers. He wanted out. He wanted his team out.

Daniel took a breath and pushed four of the glyphs. The heavy stone door rose, and the damp decay of the jungle wafted into the room. 

“Yes! Thank you, Daniel! We are so out of here!”

The heat of the jungle hit them like a wall. They stepped out with greater relief than they had felt on stepping into the pyramid to escape it. The sounds of the jungle surrounded them. It was the sound of life. A light, warm rain fell through the trees above.

“How far to the Stargate, Carter?”

Sam scanned for the naquadah that would give away the location of the Stargate. “About a mile, Sir. That way.” She pointed to their left. Sam was enjoying the feel of the hot air against her face. She was enjoying the water dripping from the dense canopy of leaves overhead, and running down her neck. She had never been so glad to get outside.

Teal’c raised his face to the sky and let the moisture run across hid skin. He was free. His teammates were free, and they had destroyed Am-Heh and the Goa’uld who served him. Teal’c felt a profound sense of satisfaction.

“It’s kind of nice out.” Daniel’s glasses had fogged the minute they stepped outside. He took them off and wiped them on his shirt before replacing them. He discovered that he had merely smeared them, and tried again, purposely not thinking about what it might be that he was wiping off the lenses. He took a deep breath of the humid jungle air. It smelled good. A bit moldy, but good.

Jack waved them toward the Stargate and they started to make their way through the jungle. “So, Daniel, tell us about those parchments. Why should they have decayed?” Jack could tell that Daniel was exhausted, because he didn’t even question Jack’s interest. His eyes lit up and his hands moved in the air as he began to instruct them on the nature of parchment.

“Well, parchment was widely used before the use of paper became common. It’s made from stretched animal skins, mostly calfskin, sheepskin, or goatskin. Of course, this parchment might be something else. It’s different from leather in that it’s not tanned, but stretched, scraped, and dried under tension. They used large frames and -” Daniel continued his monologue on the origin, uses, and qualities of parchment as they pushed their way through the undergrowth.

Teal’c walked beside the archeologist and listened with every appearance of interest.

Sam looked at the Colonel. “Sir? You’re interested in parchment?” 

“Nope. Not even a little bit." Jack grinned. “But it’s normal.” He gestured ahead at Daniel and Teal’c. “We’re alive. Daniel’s… here. He’s talking about some boring thing that you wouldn’t think Teal’c would give two hoots about, but he does. We’re on our way back to the Stargate, and we’re going home, mostly in one piece. It’s normal. I like normal. Normal is relaxing.” 

She smiled, pushing a vine out of her way and kept trudging forward toward the Stargate. “Yes, sir. I like normal, too.”


End file.
